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Practical Occultism : 



A COURSE OF LECTURES 

THROUGH THE TRANCE MEDIUMSHIP 

/ OF 
J.J. MORSE. 




WITH A PREFACE 



WILLIAM EMMETTE COLEMAN. 




1888. 

San Francisco, Cal. 
" carrier dove " publishing house, 32 ellis street. 

England : 
h. a. kersey, progressive literature agency,! newgate street 

newcastle-on-tyne. 







**- 



COPYRIGHTED 
IS87 



TABLE OK CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Prolegomena ' 5 

Lecture I. The Trance as the Doorway to the Occult. Its 

Magnetic, Natural, and Spiritual Forms of Induction 9 

Lecture II. Mediumship: Its Physical, Mental, and Spiritual 

Conditions , 31 

Lecture III. Mediumship (continued): Its Foundation, Devel- - 

opment, Dangers, and Advantages 49 

Lecture IV. Magic. Sorcery, and Witchcraft 70 

Lecture V. The Natural, Spiritual, and Celestial Planes of the 

Second State 89 

Lecture VI. The Soul World: Its Hells, Heavens, and Evolu- 
tions 105 

Lecture VII. Life, Development, and Death in Spirit-land. . . 123 

Appendix. Answers to Questions 141 



PROLEGOMENA. 



The educational and reformatory movement called 
Modern Spiritualism has, in its inherent many-sidedness, 
developed variant phases of expression and action. Com- 
ing in contact with individualities of almost every conceiv- 
able character, it has been variously interpreted and 
directed; and candor compels the assertion, that not at all 
times has the interpretation and direction given it been of 
the wisest and best. In some instances its facts and 
truths — fraught with such momentous consequence to 
humanity for good or ill, according to the manner of their 
use by those to whom they come — have been perverted to 
unwise or harmful ends and uses, — sometimes in ignorance, 
and at other times through conscious misapplication 
thereof for selfish or evil purposes. 

One of the more conspicuous of these perversions — 
especially during the last decade — has been the growing 
tendency, on the part of a portion of the adherents of the 
Spiritual Philosophy, to introduce into that philosophy 
sundry elements pertaining to the mysticisms of ancient 
and modern times. Certain of the inspirational speakers, 
and others among the public workers for Spiritualism, to- 
gether with many of its followers in the private walks of 
life, have been misled, to a greater or less degree, by the 



PROLEGOMENA. 



current idealisms, transcendentalisms, and fanciful con- 
ceits, born of crude speculations and nurtured by spuri- 
ous philosophies and pseudo-science. Sound philosophy 
and genuine science, while in accord with the demon- 
strated truths of Modern Spiritualism, have neither lot nor 
part in any of the mutually-antagonistic and ever-con- 
flicting forms of mysticism with which the world has 
been and still is cursed; including all those phases thereof 
with which many have sought to encumber Spiritualism. 

A rational, natural, healthy, progressive, scientific 
Spiritualism, at one with the spirit of the age, with the 
trend of the most advanced modern thought, must be 
wholly free from the degrading and soul-stultifying theses 
and dogmas of the mysticisms of the day; and until every- 
thing of the latter character be eliminated from the spirit- 
ual movement, it can never hope to obtain that respect 
and confidence of the intelligent, thoughtful men and 
women of our planet to which it will be justly entitled 
when its complete dissociation from its present perverting 
encumbrances becomes an accomplished fact. 

Under the general head of speculative occultism may be 
classed all the mysticisms of the present age; and, in 
contradistinction thereto, the term " Practical Occultism" 
has been aptly chosen for a volume of inspirational lec- 
tures delivered by Mr. J. J. Morse, dealing with subjects 
of " great pith and moment" in a sound, clear, and emi- 
nently sensible manner. For nearly twenty years Mr. 
Morse has been a leading trance exponent of a common- 
sense, scientific, non-mystical Spiritualism, — free at all 



PROLEGOMENA. 



times from the extravagances and perversions, the meta- 
physical idealisms, and the rhapsodical moonshine with 
which in some quarters the Spiritual Philosophy has been 
heavily burdened, to its sore detriment and disgrace. 

Having had the pleasure of being present at the original 
delivery of the discourses composing this volume, I am 
enabled to understandingly and conscientiously commend 
them to the attention and study of all those interested in 
the topics treated; and who should not be? As the title 
of the work indicates, it will be found truly practical; 
being rich in instruction upon matters of deep import to 
all humanity. Its teachings concerning the Trance and 
Mediumship are pregnant with valuable instruction and 
judicious counsel. The true character of Magic, Sorcery, 
and Witchcraft in the light of an enlightened Spiritual 
Philosophy, devoid of present-day mysticisms, whether 
theosophic, occultic, or what not, is succinctly and 
graphically presented. The last three lessons will probably 
be found among the most interesting of the series, furnish- 
ing as they do a variety of information upon the states and 
conditions of the spirit world, — information much of it, I 
think, not generally known to the Spiritual public. 

In my judgment, the lessons in this book, as a whole, 
are sound in doctrine; they are edifying and profitable in 
instruction; they are elevating and spiritualizing in ten- 
dency; and they are worthy the careful, thoughtful study of 
all. William Emmette Coleman. 

San Francisco, Cal., December, 1887. 




The following Lectures were reported by 
Mr. G. H. HAWES 

OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 




FIRST LECTURE. 

THE TRANCE AS THE DOORWAY TO THE OCCULT. ITS 

MAGNETIC, NATURAL, AND SPIRITUAL 

FORMS OF INDUCTION. 

Our topic is the "Trance as the Doorway to he Occult," 
dealing with it in its natural, magnetic, and spiritual 
methods of induction, and endeavoring, as a consequence, 
to show you what a wondrous and marvelous doorway 
into the unseen there is treasured within the life possibil- 
ities of all humanity; for we hold it as one of the cardinal 
principles of being, that the constitution of humanity at 
large is practically a unit in its character, — that there is no 
possibility pertaining to any one of the children of earth 
that is not also latent in all other of earth's children. 
The variousness of development, the peculiarities and 
idiosyncrasies of individual character, and the opportuni- 
ties of exercise, alone constitute the differentiating 
conditions which give to one a seeming excess of 
development, and to another no apparent manifestation at 
all. But, by and by, in the progress of humanity, when 
the laws of being are more correctly and truly understood, 
it will be found how each and all of you, within the 
measure of your capacities, in accordance with your 
possibilities, and in relation to your requirements, will be 



IO THE TRANCE. 



able to develop all the possibilities that are latent in 
humanity, collectively as well as individually. Then 
mystery, and all the results of ignorance and superstition, 
shall be banished from the pathway, and the unseen and 
spiritual life of man, with all its qualities and attributes, 
shall stand revealed as plainly and as clearly to the 
understanding as do your surroundings in the external 
universe to-day. 

The Trance condition is the warrant of death and the 
prophecy of futurity; it is, in its revelation of the higher 
capacities of human nature, the measure and certain 
indication, the hand-post, as it were, upon the highway 
of eternal life, pointing to the mountains of wisdom, that 
lie, perhaps, still enshrouded by the mists of ignorance, 
and thereby concealed from the understanding of human- 
ity to-day. We are aware that this is a great and 
somewhat startling claim, but yet we think the matters we 
are about to present will more than justify it; for you will 
bear in mind that if death be an impassable gulf over 
which the spirit can never return to mortality, there 
can be no sort of evidence presented in this world that 
can tell you what is upon the other side of that gulf. 
But if there can be a miniature representation of, or a 
correspondence to, that phenomenon which is called 
death, then there is a vindication of death, an interpreta- 
tion of its issues, an explanation of its consequences; and 
if that miniature representation can be experienced by the 
individual and he return to human life and consciousness 
again, two ends are gained; first, the realization of an 



THE TRANCE. II 



existence of himself apart from his external and material 
body with its outward consciousness; secondly, his ability 
to triumph over the limitations of his material environ- 
ments, and then return to all its possessions in their 
fullness and entirety. 

Thus you see that virtually the Trance, which is this 
miniature representation of death, gives you the key by 
which you may transcend the environments of mortality 
and ascend into the domain of spirituality. It is, indeed, 
the doorway to the occult, — to that which is hidden from 
the ordinary investigation and outward consciousness; a 
passage-way from the realm of action upon the external 
side of life to the realm of action upon the internal side of 
life; but in every case its opening depends upon your own 
organic constitutions, your mental, nervous, and spiritual 
possibilities and environments, — the means upon which 
you will be dependent to open this portal for your- 
selves. 

All life, intelligence, and conscious action, so far as 
man is concerned, is, as you know, a duality; it has its 
outward expression upon the plane of physical existence, 
as well as it has its interior or spiritual expressions of which 
you alone are conscious. All that your fellows out- 
side of yourself can know of you is that amount of your 
spiritual self which expresses itself in your actions and 
your speech; but even these are cumbered, covered up 
obscured, and diverted, by the external causes impinging 
upon your actions and life from day to day. Therefore 
it is possible that one may grasp your hand, gaze into your 



12 THE TRANCE. 



eyes, and hear your voice day after day for years, and be 
no nearer knowing you than had you never met. But 
could you find a way by which you could enter into each 
other's essential nature, by which you could spiritually 
come en rapport, then, perchance, it might be discovered 
that you were altogether different kind of people beneath 
the outward seeming, — that you had altogether a different 
identity; that there was a better part of you, — a more won- 
derful part, a part removed from the external life, a spirit- 
ual part that was struggling and striving, imperfectly, alas! 
in many cases, to make itself known through the outward 
manifestations of sense and thought and action. Some 
there are (more perhaps than might be expected) whose 
inner natures flash and glow through the outward forms of 
life and conduct; and these royal souls are among the 
leaders, heroes, and the nobler sorts of men; and when you 
clasp their hands you feel the power of this inward some- 
thing magnetically beating upon your own pulses, echoing 
in the chambers of your mind, and flashing before the 
windows of your own souls. But, alas! these better sorts 
of people are, in the main, few and far between to-day, 
for this reason: the outward cares of life often blunt 
and dull the finer sensibilities of human nature, so that 
but little of this better part of man can find expression in 
the daily life of humanity at large. 

But there is this doorway to your better selves. Not 
only is it true that you are sometimes as sealed books to 
your fellows, but you are also sealed books, to a large ex- 
tent, to yourselves. Let us illustrate the point. You are 



THE TRANCE. 1 3 



engaged in a harsh round of toil; duty presses heavy upon 
you and weighs your spirit down, and you have no time or 
leisure for reflection or meditation; every moment of your 
day is occupied, and at night when you seek your couch 
for rest, brain and body are alike too tired to think or medi- 
tate, and you welcome as the best relief the oblivion sleep 
can give. But, by and by, there comes a time when 
your affairs change and you can rest, and then you begin 
to think; reflection asserts her power, meditation becomes 
frequent, loving influences brood upon your soul; and 
straightway you begin to realize there are faculties, powers, 
and possibilities in your nature that you have scarcely 
ever dreamed of before. Instinctively there is borne into 
your consciousness the understanding of a better part, 
and you wonder how it is that this spiritual part has been 
voiceless for all the preceding years. Sometimes this 
voice is called forth by what is called religious conviction; 
sometimes it arises simply out of enthusiasm for a noble 
purpose, or an interest in some great cause may kindle it 
into action. With nearly all mankind there is some time 
in their lives when this part asserts itself. Let us urge 
you by every power of persuasion not to hide this better part, 
but to obey its impulses, to cultivate its powers, and seek 
henceforth to rule your lives intelligently in harmony 
therewith. 

What is meant by the statement that the Trance is the 
doorway to the Occult ? It is really the method by which 
you are enabled to solve the problem of death without 
dying, to come face to face with the realities of the 



14 THE TRANCE. 



immortal life without actually becoming an entity living 
therein. Is this true? Our answer is yes; for experience 
abundantly substantiates it. 

The methods of induction by which the trance can be 
established relate to the possibilities of a person inducing 
that state in themselves by themselves; to the possibility 
of that state being induced by another person upon them; 
and lastly, to the possibility of that state being induced 
by persons not living in the world wherein the entranced 
person lives. These give us, as you will see, the natural, 
magnetic, and spiritual forms of induction. The last 
form might be disputed by those who are unacquainted 
with spiritual, psychological, or occult matters; because, 
they will urge, how can it be possible that a being living 
in another grade of life altogether invisible and unseen 
to us can induce a psychological condition upon a person 
living in this world; there is no relationship, and therefore 
there can be no influence exerted. This argument is 
fallacious; it discloses ignorance rather than knowledge; 
for if, as we shall presently see, there is this other part of 
man just referred to, this spiritual side of his nature, 
then that spiritual side must of necessity be related to, 
and will present a plane or point of contact for, the unseen 
inhabitants of the inner life, when they desire to produce 
the outward physiological effect denominated the trance. 

What are the first conditions to create that receptive 
and responsive condition in the human structure by which 
the trance in any form is rendered possible ? In the first 
place, let us turn our glance to the physical conditions. 



THE TRANCE. 1 5 



The trance depends much more upon this than is usually 
supposed. It is generally thought that you must be 
willing to be entranced and desire it, but this is not all 
the question. It depends also to a large extent upon the 
physical conditions; and if those conditions are in a state 
of irritation, that irritation will certainly react upon the 
mental condition, and the passivity requested will be to 
that extent destroyed. Therefore, the first condition we 
would insist upon is the nearest possible approach to 
physical healthfulness. We know it is commonly urged 
that the trance is an abnormal condition, and that there- 
fore the subject should be more or less in an abnormal 
condition of health; it is pointed out that numbers of the 
magnetic and spiritual subjects are persons whose health 
would not be considered good, and from that has arisen 
the argument that all subjects must necessarily be persons 
of abnormal health. This, as a general proposition, how- 
ever, is radically wrong; that it is so in many cases to-day 
we are prepared to admit; but, we repeat, it is radically 
wrong. The highest requirements of the human organism 
can only be attained when that organism is in its highest 
condition of health, and when harmoniously operating in 
every department. The highest condition of health does 
not mean a gross physical man where all the mental and 
spiritual growth is sacrificed to a splendid animal body. 
A perfect condition of physical health is cleanliness and 
harmoniousness in every department. Therefore the 
stomach, the liver, the various departments of the internal 
viscera, the circulation of the blood, the blood itself, the 



1 6 THE TRANCE. 



heart and lungs, and all the vital organism should be in 
that perfectly clean and healthy state wherein the individual 
realizes the fullest and completest benefits from being 
alive. When this is established the first step has been 
taken. We need not remind you that all that would befoul 
and clog the system must be avoided; that you must pay 
the closest attention to personal sanitation and to everything 
that pertains to the well-being of the human organism. If 
you wish to pass through the doorway of the Trance into the 
domain of the Occult, you must be prepared to make some 
sacrifices in order to gain the privileges you desire. But, 
remember, that, after all, these sacrifices are mostly of 
conventional forms; you must be prepared to sacrifice many 
of the enjoyments and privileges that conventional 
civilization accords to you, and we frankly tell you that a 
great many of these privileges are a bane to you, rather 
than a blessing. 

Then the next question is the mentai state; for physical 
health, harmony, and cleanliness are but stepping-stones to 
mental cleanliness and harmony. Without this condition 
of the mentality, the desired end will, generally, be more 
or less defeated. 

Sometimes it is necessary to temporarily surrender even 
the senses, also your likes and dislikes, to school yourself 
for the time to submission. The apprentice has to submit 
to the guidance of a master hand, that he may be taught to 
accomplish the results that the training of the master will 
enable him to reach. So you, as apprentices in the 
occult, must temporarily be learners, must be pupils, must 



THE TRANCE. 1 7 



subject yourselves to the greater will and experience. 
Therefore the mind must be calm, harmonious, and sub- 
missive; and when the positive part of the mind and the 
will are thus in a passive condition, the spiritual 
forces will be conditioned in like manner; and 
you will find that all the vital forces, instead of 
vibrating with the intense activities that characterize 
their movement when the individual is acting for 
himself, or when all the forces of the body are in full 
sway, will be reduced to the lowest rate of vibratory move- 
ment. In some places the vibratory movement can 
scarcely be detected, being as the imperceptible movement 
of still waters in a pool. Then we find the pulsing of the 
superior forces in the brain becomes calm, the beautiful 
light suffusing this organ loses the intensity of its brilliancy 
and activity, and settling as a golden glory it seems as if 
waiting for something to occur; then this light appears like 
the sweet summer haze settling over the field before the 
evening breeze begins to stir. But if we look a little 
deeper we shall find there is a movement beginning to 
express itself; and that movement commences directly the 
first attempt is made to induce the trance by the aid of 
human magnetism when the operator concentrates his 
mind upon the subject, and either by his gaze or the 
passage of his hands discharges from him that vital fluid 
which bears the name of human magnetism. That fluid 
impinges upon the external magnetic sphere of the subject 
and produces a commotion therein, which motion is taken 
up by the muscular and nervous forces, and is by them 



I 8 THE TRANCE. 



carried to the stomach, the lungs, and the superior organ, 
the brain. The reaction from the stomach and the lungs 
produces a singular disturbance in the lower brain or cer- 
ebellum, and the disturbance of this lower brain exerts a 
sort of excitation which, in its operation, affects the upper 
or superior portions of the brain, and seems temporarily to 
excite it and the forces therein. This commotion, 
besides being an excitation proceeding from the lower to the 
upper brain, creates also a further reaction upon the entire 
viscera of the subject; for the excitement of the brain is 
communicated to the internal organs through the various 
ganglia and the great sympathetic nerve. Frequently this 
reaction produces a feeling of nausea of the stomach, followed 
by a species of spasm or convulsion that runs through the en- 
tire nervous system. Hence you will observe the subject gasp 
and yawn, the face become flushed, tears flow from the 
eyes, the breathing becomes heavy, and there will be indi- 
cations of sickness and spasms, excitement and hysteria, — all 
because of this reactive influence of the lower brain oper- 
ating upon the sympathetic nerve aud ganglia, and 
through those descending into the internal organs producing 
reactions there. 

You will have observed that some magnetizers find it best 
to direct the magnetic force to the pit of the stomach, while 
others find it best to direct it to the heart and lungs, others to 
look into the eye, others to merely operate upon the 
frontal brain at first, others between the shoulders and 
upon the nape of the neck, where they place the fingers to 
discharge the magnetic fluid into the system. No operator 



THE TRANCE. 1 9 



will confine himself to any one particular method, and it 
may be that the necessities of certain subjects will 
demand that the operator shall proceed in none cf the 
ways we have just referred to. But in any case the result 
obtained is the same, and is precisely identical • whatever 
method to induce it is pursued. That result is the with- 
drawal of the action of the muscular and nervous forces 
from their external centres of operation and sensation, 
and the concentration of them upon the brain itself for 
the purpose of effecting an awakening of the interior 
powers. 

The Trance, of course, presupposes (by an artificial 
compelling shall we call it) a cessation of external sensa- 
tion and a withdrawal of all the ordinary methods of 
expression, and an opening of the interior perception 
belonging to the spiritual nature. 

When all these results have been carried forward to a 
certain degree, the subject will be induced into the mag- 
netic state, or mesmeric trance, which represents approxi- 
mately that condition the human structure will be in 
when it is finally dead. Then a further process is 
required. To put a body to sleep, to lock up its senses 
in the embrace of an artificial death, to seal up the ears 
and mouth and eyes, is, after all, but a poor process, 
without the ultimate result of awakening the consciousness 
upon the inner plane. But when such awakening is 
accomplished, then the individual becomes clairvoyant. 
The spiritual counterparts of the physical senses are then 
awakened, so that the spiritual eye will see spiritual things, 



THE TRANCE. 



the spiritual ear will receive the vibrations of the spiritual 
atmosphere, the spiritual brain will respond to the thoughts 
of the spiritual realm, and the individual being thus partially 
enfranchised, partially inducted through the doorway into 
the -occult realms, — into the realms concealed from the 
outer senses, — will see and hear and know and have a 
rational understanding of the conditions belonging to that 
which is called the Occult realm of life. 

Can the knowledge of these things be transmitted to the 
outer consciousness, and be retained and remembered by the 
individual, when the magnetic process is reversed and the 
locked forces of the body are again sent upon their usual mis- 
sion? Yes, by the will of the magnetizer the experiences of the 
sleeping subject (to use the familiar phrase) can be 
directed to the channels of the mind, to the chambers of 
the memory, through which, and in which, these interior 
experiences can be stored; so that, when the individual 
is brought back again to the normal state, slowly, as the 
mind clears, and he is able again to handle the machinery 
of his outer consciousness, he can bring to memory the facts 
and experiences of his interior state, and tell you what he 
saw, what he did, and where he went. 

But you will ask here — though scarcely necessary — how 
are we to know that, when the individual is thus inducted 
magnetically into the trance state, he really has seen and 
heard and known things that do not belong to this out- 
ward state of ours? When he tells you, as he can and 
does many times, of those whom the world hath lost sight 
of for years, who, perhaps, have been mourned as gone 



THE TRANCE. 



forever, — when he brings you some fact that upon further 
inquiry clearly proves he has seen the world wherein de- 
parted humanity exists, — the testimony must be accepted 
just the same as the testimony of the traveller who visits a 
distant country and returns to tell you of its people and 
its nature. 

The constant induction of the magnetic trance is an ex- 
perience not to be sought. Any method or power that 
always demands your reliance upon it is a dangerous 
method, an injurious power. It teaches you the lesson of 
dependence rather than independence; it teaches you to 
be always leaning upon somebody stronger than yourself, 
rather than impressing upon you the duty of developing 
your own strength so that you may walk alone. But, as a 
means of opening the door, as a means of carrying you 
forward to the occult, and bringing you face to face with the 
facts and purposes belonging to it, the magnetic induction 
of the trance is primarily and preeminently a necessity in 
the great majority of cases. 

Now when the psychologist grows just a trifle wiser and 
learns a little more — not so very much — he will be able to 
take another step in his own usefulness, and be able to 
exalt his subjects to a greater degree of value to the world. 
When he has induced them into the magnetic state he 
will then teach them how to understand that state while 
they are in it, so that they, themselves, may induce it, 
by first showing how they may release themselves from it. 
He will be able to say, "I have opened the door for you, 
I have explained the nature of the lock upon it to you, 



2 2 THE TRANCE. 



and if you will follow my instructions you will be able to 
open and close this door whenever you desire. The key 
is yours; you can use it, and the bolts of the lock will 
ever respond to it." 

If another can induce the trance for you, why should 
you not be able to enter that state yourself unaided ? 
What another can do for you, you can do for yourself. 
It is only the knowing of the how that stands in the way. 
How, then,can you do this? Concentration of mind requires 
meditation, and a determined effort upon your part to 
withdraw yourself from external attractions, influences, 
and sensations, — these are the necessary stages towards the 
self induction of the trance; and when by due attention 
to other circumstances and surroundings you can seclude 
yourselves and concentrate your minds upon the determi- 
nation to withdraw from the external life, from the external 
senses of the body, from the external desires and activities 
of daily life, and retire within yourself, you will then find 
yourself seeking in the right direction for what you wish 
to accomplish. How often do you do this partially when 
meditating, or while indulging in pleasant reveries? 
There you sit lost to the outer life and senses, within 
yourself and forgetful of all around you, even sometimes 
forgetting you are living in this world. If you add to this 
an intelligent desire and an earnest purpose, then you will 
seal your outward senses completely and pass into the realm 
of the impalpable and occult, and of yourself gain the knowl- 
edge by your own efforts that Jiitherto you were dependent 
upon the aid of magnetizers to accomplish for you. 



THE TRANCE. 23 



Some will ask, " Is it safe ? Is it dangerous? Would I 
ever wake up again ? " When you have been trained in 
the first manner referred to and spiritually made conscious 
of your powers in this direction, when in the magnetic 
trance you have been made acquainted with the machinery 
you have to use, there is no danger, but every safety. 
And when you are thus informed and thus able to induce 
this superior condition upon yourself, you will not only 
have the Realm of the Occult open to you in its purely 
spiritual interpretation, but you will have the occult in its 
material aspect also; for you will come in contact with the 
finer physical forces of life, and be able to visit remote 
localities in mind and spirit, — be able to travel the broad 
world over, — and gain an immense amount of knowledge in 
regard to the occult side of terrestrial existence. The 
psychological phenomena will in their effects and character 
be somewhat similar in this degree to what they were in 
the first previously. But we warn you here, as we warned 
you in regard to the preceding points, that there is a 
danger to be considered. If a continual dependence 
upon another's will and help are calculated to debilitate 
the body, so also is it true that the continued exercise of 
the subjective powers of your nature will likely be injurious 
and debilitate the outward powers of your nature. In 
other words, it is improper and unwise — most improper and 
most unwise — to sacrifice any department of your nature 
for the welfare and especial development of some other 
department. Therefore, beyond satisfying yourselves of 
the reality of your spiritual natures, gaining the practical 



24 THE TRANCE. 



demonstrations we have referred to, or utilizing this won- 
derful power for special and particular necessities, we 
counsel you not to abstract yourselves from the external life 
and its duties too frequently, not to neglect the require- 
ments of the outer world, but at all times and under all 
circumstances remember that your first duty is to that 
plane of being upon which you at present reside. 

Then we come to the spiritual form of the induction of 
the Trance. We have told you, by reason of the fact that 
man was a spiritual being, that, because he has these 
spiritual powers, he is of necessity related to the spiritual 
world and its inhabitants, and therefore there was a point of 
contact between the two conditions; now we have to deal 
with the point of contact referred to. The spiritual 
people are like yourselves; they have a rational existence, 
they possess like powers, they are surrounded with spirit- 
ual and psychic auras or magnetic spheres, as are your- 
selves. Each one and every one of you is surrounded by 
a magnetic, psychic, or spiritual sphere; and the character, 
color, and vibrations of that sphere are all visible to the 
observing spirit, who can see therein your own spiritual 
character and unfoldment. These are wonderful and 
important truths; and when you are inclined to deride 
your fellows, let the counter-reflection come to you that 
there are eyes looking down upon you that can read your 
very soul and know of a truth what your natures and 
dispositions really are. 

The spiritual method of inducing the Trance is this; and 
perhaps to make it clear, we will give you an illustration 



THE TRANCE. 25 



within our own personal knowledge. Granting that we 
have all the conditions previously referred to in relation to 
health, haimony, and cleanliness of body, we have still to 
add another ingredient, which is cleanliness of mind. It 
is a most pernicious doctrine, that the mental and moral 
character of a spiritual subject has nothing at all to do 
with the phenomena presented through that subject. The 
very reverse is the case; for, when you enter into the 
higher consideration of psychical phenomena, everything 
depends upon the mental, moral, and spiritual cleanliness 
of the individual subject. Bear that truth reverently in 
your minds; for the counter-theory is degrading and debas- 
ing, — a most dangerous and damaging doctrine, which 
hinders all psychical progress or spiritual development. 

The spirit mesmerists, being in the subjective world, 
have to commence their operations from the subjective 
plane and work outwards, as already stated. Hence then, 
we have to operate upon the counterparts of the physical 
body as presented in the spiritual body; and to reach these 
we commence operation upon the outer magnetic sphere, 
but direct its effects to the spiritual or under side of 
the human being. Now this may be accomplished 
physiologically, by directing the mind or thoughts of the 
the controlling power towards the affections; for it is by 
working through the affectional sphere we are able to come 
in contact with the physical condition of the affectional 
propensities. The connecting point, so to speak, between 
the animal and the higher side of human nature is the 
affections, and through the affections the outer physical 



26 THE TRANCE. 



organization is reached; and then the control being thus 
established in the lower or basilar brain, the effect can 
be continued into the superior and frontal brains. 

Then, if the manipulation is purely and solely for a 
mechanical result, instead of turning the forces into the 
superior or intellectual brain, the flow of force is continued 
into the nervous department, and from the nervous 
outward into the muscular department; and thus, by having 
the sympathetic nervous system under control and influ- 
ence we are gradually able to withdraw the outer forces 
and bring them inwardly, as in the case of the human 
mesmerist; and thus little by little we are able to suspend 
the active operations of external sensation and conscious- 
ness and induce the condition of sleep that you know as 
the spiritual or magnetic Trance. 

The work begins internally in this case, progresses exter- 
nally, and then reacts and turns inward again. Thus you 
will observe the induction of the Trance upon the human 
subject, by the inhabitants of the spiritual world, is a 
somewhat more complicated process than the process 
when accomplished by human agency. We have, to work 
from within outwardly, and then from the outward to the 
within. 

The condition being thus induced, the direction of 
action entirely depends upon the results that are 
desired; but those results are limited by the possibilities of 
the organism that we have in control. When it is a case 
of personation it is a sympathetic, nervous, and mechanical 
control, — which being associated with a suitable and plastic 



THE TRANCE. 27 

organization, enables the operating spirit to correctly 
duplicate himself in features, in tone of voice, in 
character of speech, and in modes of action through the 
organism he is controlling. 

The Trance as induced by natural, magnetic, and spirit- 
ual agencies having now been stated to you, let us point 
one or two conclusions, that will, we trust, show you its 
utility. The spiritually-induced Trance is the highest 
form of entrancement outside of the natural or self-induced 
Trance that you can have. It is possible, of course, as you 
know, by the use of various narcotics, to induce the condi- 
tion of Trance, and by such abnormal means produce similar 
results to those already detailed. But here we wish again 
to caution you in the most impressive manner that we can, 
that all such agencies are radically bad and injurious; 
they are destructive of the tissues of the body, and they 
deteriorate the organism as a whole; they lower the moral 
and mental character and strength of the individual; and 
if you once become a prey to their use, and a subject of 
their influence, it will need, in a great majority of cases, 
a larger amount of will-power than the individual is gen- 
erally capable of to break the chain you have thus placed 
around your neck; indeed you will have absolutely conjured 
up and imposed upon yourself a devil that will claim you 
as a victim, in all probability, so long as you remain upon 
the mortal plane. 

The spiritually-induced Trance brings you individually 
into the closest relationships to spiritual personality and 
consciousness upon the inner plane of life, — the individual 



2 8 THE TRANCE. 



then becoming, to a very large extent, one with the spiritual 
peoples of the spirit world. When mediumship is better 
understood, and the character of the Trance more clearly 
comprehended, the individual who is controlled (as 'the 
saying is) will be able to return to external life benefited 
and refreshed, and freighted with a vast variety of experi- 
ence and information, — which information and experience, 
in a majority of cases, he now possesses; but not being 
trained in the character of the Trance, not having psychical 
education, he is unable to transmit it to the external side 
of memory, and so bring it into his active consciousness 
when he returns to the ordinary state. 

One other suggestion, which will be more clearly illus- 
trated in a further lecture: in regard to the induction 
of the Trance by the artificial methods used by the 
magicians and sorcerers of ancient and modern times, 
we only wi$h to suggest that there is a general psychical 
condition established by conforming to the requirements 
of the gatherings, where such phenomena occur, whereby a 
mental atmosphere is created, and a psychical condition es- 
tablished, sufficiently powerful in their effects upon sensitive 
natures to induce the Trance in their cases as the results of 
the conditions thus created. 

Here, then, we have established the fact that the Trance 
can be induced by three different methods: by another 
for you, by yourself for yourself, by spirits from the 
spiritual world. We have found that the induction of 
this Trance in either case brings you into relationship with 
the spirit world, with the spirit people, and with the 



THE TRANCE. 29 



spiritual powers of yourselves. We have found that this 
corresponds to death, for death will do no more for you 
than the Trance, save only in this one respect: death 
results in your absolute departure from material ties, 
while the Trance but temporarily releases you from the 
conditions of material existence, and enables you to return 
to outward life again. The Trance may inform you, as a 
consequence of your experience while therein, that there is 
another realm of being, that there is another self within 
you, that there are other people beyond you, — those other 
people being those who one time lived amongst you, and 
who have passed through the valleys of the shadows of 
death into the Morning Land beyond. These evidences, 
these proofs, indeed, make the Trance an artificial and par- 
tial death; enable you consciously and understandingly 
to enter into the Spiritual world, and, as already stated, 
enable you also on the physical side of life to come into 
contact with the occult powers and forces of nature. 
You are thus brought in contact with the subjective side 
of material existence as well as with the spiritual side of life 
that lies beyond the boundaries of the mortal state. 

Thus have we clearly shown you that the Trance is the 
doorway of the occult, — to that occult which ordinary 
experience and education declare is entirely concealed, 
or even deny the existence of. The possibilities we 
have referred to, as the doorway through which you may 
pass to the occult, bear no relation either in strength or 
beauty to that deeper and sublimer doorway, Death itself. 
That gateway is gemmed with radiant beauties, twined 



3o 



THE TRANCE. 



with divinest flowers, shines with purest lustre; and when 
the faltering footsteps approach it, as the outward senses 
vanish from you, and the outward form, like a discarded 
mantle, falls upon the floor of mortal life, and you at last 
free and unencumbered enter in and pass that portal, you 
then will behold its glories fully disclosed to you; and in 
that spiritual awakening you shall realize all the bright 
pleasures and sweet experiences of your mortal life, when, 
perchance, sleeping the sleep of nature, or in that other 
sleep of the magnetic state, or of the spiritually-induced 
Trance, you have had views of the fairer country and 
mingled with its happy people, — all these shall come back 
to you in vivid reality, as you enter into that sublime and 
beautiful occult world : all shall then be made plain and 
clear; but even here, by the Trance this can be done for 
you to-day. We repeat that the Trance, either in its 
magnetic, natural, or spiritually-induced form, is God's 
evidence and nature's indication of the utility of death 
and the reality of immortal life. 



SECOND LECTURE. 

mediumship: its physical, mental, and 
spiritual conditions. 

In this lecture we take up the consideration of a most 
important subject, — that of Mediumship. To enable us 
to do the matter as much justice as possible, we have 
concluded to divide the subject into two sections: dealing 
with mediumship in this lecture in regard to its physio- 
logical, mental, and spiritual conditions in the individual; 
while in the next lecture we shall deal with its develop- 
ment and dangers, and some other matters of importance, — 
by which we hope to put you in possession of a tolerably 
clear, but necessarily condensed, statement of the laws 
and philosophy of mediumship. 

There are many people who consider that mediumship 
is the greatest possible blessing that can come to them, 
while others would not have it under any circumstances, 
considering it to be dangerous and inimical alike to 
health and morals. We are by no means satisfied that 
mediumship is either an undisguised blessing or an 
unlimited curse, for there are so many things to be 
considered in regard to it that any harsh or absolute 
judgment of this kind would be most improper. When 
asked to consider whether mediumship is a thing to be 



32 MEDIUMSHIP. 



sought for, and an experience that is calculated to benefit 
all individuals, our judgment is clear and decided; — it is 
not a thing to be sought for, and it can not always be 
considered a blessing to the person who experiences it. 

It must always be borne in mind that those character- 
istics of your life's expression that are spontaneously 
made manifest are the best for you in their expressions 
and in their results, while those expressions that have to 
be forced into activity, and require constant nursing and 
care to maintain in operation, entail such drains upon 
body, mind, and spirit, that they are very questionable 
benefits to you in the end. When mediumship comes or 
expresses itself spontaneously, manifesting itself of its ow r n 
inherent power, then there can be no question, that, 
rightly used and within proper rational limits, the 
exercise of mediumship can be made a means of great 
blessing to the individual; not only to the individual, but 
to the community as well. 

Mediumship must be accepted, then, as an illustration 
of latent possibilities within the character of the medium 
and as another avenue towards the occult side of life. 
But the persistent effort to cultivate mediumship, or to 
force it into activity, should be always discouraged and 
discountenanced. There are so many other things, so far 
as the practical necessities of human life are concerned, that 
press thick and fast upon you on every side for attention 
and doing, that, in our judgment, in the present condition 
of human development and human society, it is better to 
attend to the pressing needs of this world's life, education, 



MEDIUMSHIP. 



33 



and development, than to squander the precious powers 
and energies in order to develop a flower that, perchance, 
may bloom a little season, and then wither and die, 
leaving scarcely a memory of its hue and fragrance behind it. 
The first thought we have to consider in relation to 
mediumship is its physiological conditions. These are of 
two kinds: the strictly nervous, and the strictly psychical. 
In the first instance we consider the highest degree of phys- 
ical health perfectly compatible with the very best mani- 
festation of mediumship; and where mediumship results 
in personal deterioration or in the destruction of physical 
health, then it is most unwise and extremely pernicious to 
continue to utilize such part of your nature, because it 
emphatically means that such part is being exercised at 
the expense of other powers. Therefore, the first caution 
we would suggest is, that whenever and wherever the 
exercise or development of mediumship results in con- 
tinued ill health, it is wisest and safest to abandon its ex- 
ercise, because it is maintained at the expense and injury 
of your physical well-being. Our ground is strong and 
sure here. Physical health is one of the greatest blessings 
that Infinite Intelligence has rendered possible for finite 
humanity; it is far too precious a thing to be cast lightly 
aside or trampled beneath your feet. But distinctly 
understand what we mean by physical health. It is this: 
that personal condition wherein all the functions of the 
body are in their natural, normal, harmonious operation; 
wherein you are " sound in wind and limb," to use a 
homely expression. If mediumship continually lessens the 



34 MEDIUMSHIP. 



functional activities of your nature, then emphatically an 
injury is being done to you. 

At first, almost invariably, incipient mediumship, or 
mediumship in its early stages, will result in severe physio- 
logical derangement, nervous prostration, and many 
altogether strange experiences in body and mind, which 
frequently cause the frightened beholders to believe that 
the individual is surely going out of his mind. Nothing 
of the sort. If judicious care be exercised in these earlier 
stages, the resulting disturbances may be successfully over- 
come, reduced to order; and harmony being re-established, 
such extreme disturbances will be very unlikely to recur 
again. The causes of these physiological disturbances are 
various. All people are born with certain tendencies, and 
with certain weak spots in their physiological natures, and 
whatever psychical power descends upon them will most 
certainly search out that weak spot first; because there will 
be the line of least resistance, and that being the case the 
first disturbance will be manifested in that direction. Is 
the heart weak in its action ? Is there weakness in the cir- 
culatory system ? Then the result of the influx of psycholog- 
ical power will be to affect the actions of the heart and 
circulatory system. While, as concerning the brain, it 
may be that some particular part of the cerebral structure 
may be stimulated into abnormal activity, and people may 
suppose (when they know no better) that mediumship has 
unhinged the person's mind and affected his brain; whereas 
the real fact is, that the possibilities of the affection 
existed prior to the development of the mediumship, and the 



MEDIUMSHIP. 35 



development of the mediumship has only brought to the 
surface the latent possibilities. Here is a most important 
lesson. If the influx of psychological power and the de- 
velopment of what is called mediumship results in making 
plain the weak spots of the physiology, then the informa- 
tion thus presented should be utilized so that you be taught 
to direct your mind to the building up, strengthening, and 
rounding out of these weaker parts, that they may come 
into the line of general health with the remainder of the 
system. 

There is another side to this physiological aspect of 
mediumship. It occasionally acts in such a manner that 
it becomes a stimulant to every organ and function of the 
system, and the individual becomes excited, nervous, and 
irritable, so that people say the development of medium- 
ship c 'is just burning that man right up;" this is true, 
for the functions of his bodily existence are all so accel- 
erated, that, though he eats and drinks as usual, he 
appears to get no benefit therefrom, — the fact being that he 
is really wasting away, because the great stimulus that has 
fallen upon him is exhausting his vitality quicker than it 
can be recuperated. Here, then, must be laid down the 
law. The greater the acceleration of physiological func- 
tions, as the result of psychical influences upon the human 
body, the more need of caution and restraint in every 
department of physiological life. Thus the lesson is clearly 
borne home upon you, that under no circumstances can 
you afford to allow the functions of the body to be your 
master; and if you feel the physical nature is gaining the 



36 MEDIUMSHIP. 



mastery over you, then plant your foot firmly down and say, 
" I will be the master of myself." 

Viewed from the physiological standpoint the results of 
the development of mediumship are of two characters. If 
on the one hand it is judiciously prosecuted and applied, 
it results in the improvement of the entire physiology, in 
the building up, ultimately, of its weak parts, strengthening 
and sustaining them, and imparting a degree of excellence 
of operation and a healthy character to the entire body 
that the individual had, perhaps, previously been a stranger 
to. Much depends upon the means that are used in order 
to produce these results; indeed, so many things are 
involved in it, that it requires the greatest care in the 
development of the medium to lead up to the results 
just mentioned. On the other hand, if the vital powers 
are depleted, the great organs of the body deprived of their 
necessary vital power, their magnetic and spiritual influences 
drained out and exhausted, and they become torpid and 
congested, so that they do not adequately fulfill their 
functions, then the truth is presented that mediumship 
does develop a class of poor, hollow-voiced, and pale-faced 
creatures that the world calls mediums, — people, in fact, 
who never ought to have had anything at all to do with 
mediumship. 

But there is no real reason why such results should be 
presented. The only reason is on account of ignorance 
and the injudicious use of these powers. How to utilize 
this mediumship properly does not come before us in this 
lecture; we are only dealing at this point with the physio- 



MEDIUMSHIP. 37 



logical peculiarities that are associated with mediumship in 
regard to health and the general character of the functional 
operations of the system. We must now, then, take 
another step, and consider it from the interior point of 
view; for what we have already dealt with are purely matters 
that lie in the external. When we go beneath the out- 
ward operations of the system we come in contact with, 
respectively, the muscular and nervous forces of the physi- 
ology. These muscular and nervous forces fulfill impor- 
tant functions, as of course you know, in regard to the 
bodily or animal existence; and the development of 
mediumship will disturb them by stimulating and exciting 
them, because the unfoldment of mediumship in every 
case pre-supposes and implies the absorption of a foreign 
spiritual and magnetic element, a quickening force. The 
doctrine of the Holy Ghost descending upon you is not 
quite so fictitious as some hard-headed people would have 
you believe now-a-days. There is a spiritual force 
directed by the attendant spirits that is brought to bear 
upon the developing medium, that, as it were, insinuates 
itself into the muscular and nervous forces of the subject, 
and necessarily stimulates and sometimes irritates these 
two departments; and by that stimulation and irritation 
leads to a cerebral excitement which may rest within the 
brain simply in the external sphere, or may proceed into 
the interior spiritual department and there produce other 
results upon the higher planes of mediumship. Now, this 
agitation of muscular and nervous force will be attended 
by more conspicuous development of the mentality of the 



38 MEDIUMSHIP. 



individual than has been induced hitherto. Therefore, 
working up towards the sphere of the mind and the will, 
all kinds of ideas, all kinds of thoughts and speculations, 
may pass before the inner eye of the mind. 

Here we are trying to draw the line between the physio- 
logical and the mental department of the subject. Before 
we enter into that mental department, let us consider the 
physiological in another direction. The physiological devel- 
opment of mediumship may result in the development of 
mediumship which is solely related to external phenomena, 
— to those phenomena which transpire outside of the per- 
sonality of the medium, but yet are dependent upon the 
presence of the medium; in a sentence, physical medium- 
ship. Then we have, first, visible phenomena, associated 
with mental and muscular susceptibility; which give you 
those phenomena which are related to the personality of 
the medium, and depend upon the person of the medium, 
since they take place within the personal sphere of the 
medium. Here we have impersonation, those manifesta- 
tions of individual possession, as they are called, whereby 
you are able more or less distinctly to individualize the 
communicating intelligence. Now this phase of medium- 
ship is the most valuable that the world can possibly have 
to-day. It is the most valuable phase of mediumship you 
can cultivate, and for these reasons, briefly: You may 
have the most remarkable phenomena produced by the 
spiritual world for your edification and instruction, and as 
Spiritualists you may be benefitted and blessed as a con- 
sequence, but the spiritual world owes a duty to the skep- 



MEDIUMSHIP. 39 



tical world as well as to the Spiritualistic world. Spirit- 
ualists have crossed the threshold and come into the Tem- 
ple, and are enjoying all the benefits and blessings therein 
to be found, but the enquirer is without the sacred pre- 
cinct; he would like to enter, yet he fears he may find no 
means to enable him to do so. But when by the aid of 
the personating medium he is enabled to see his beloved 
friends, and they make themselves actual and visible in 
the personality of the medium, plain to his consciousness 
and understanding, and tell him specifically points and 
facts of identity and experience that were utterly beyond 
the power of any other intelligence to tell, then he has 
something borne in upon him through the senses of sight, 
of hearing and understanding, that appeals to him without 
any of the appearance of jugglery and conjuring that 
other forms and manifestations from the spiritual world 
naturally suggest to the prejudiced and hostile enquirer. 
Therefore, we repeat, that the personating medium is the 
most valuable medium you can present to enquirers. We 
know that in making this statement we are open to con- 
siderable criticism; but we still adhere to it, and reiterate 
that the phase of mediumship we have referred to appeals 
the deepest and the clearest, to the enquirer, of any phase 
of mediumship that can be mentioned. We assert that 
here we have the most useful form of physiological 
mediumship, and when the individual is thus controlled 
the purely muscular and mental nervous forces are being 
used by the operating spirits; and if those forces are 
judiciously used and proper attention is paid to them, 



40 MEDIUMSHIP. 



and the necessary period for recuperation that should 
always follow every exercise of mediumistic gifts or powers 
is allowed, the individual will not then experience any 
very serious disadvantage from the prosecution of his 
mediumship. But if mediumship is pursued day after 
day without any attention or consideration being bestowed 
upon the bodily system, and without any attention to the 
laws of psychical recuperation, then mental disaster and 
physical distress and inharmony will result in every case 
on the outward plane. 

We now take a step from the physiological side 
to the more interior department of the mental state. The 
mental character of mediumship is not sufficiently under- 
stood by Spiritualists at large. A great many things are 
expected of the mental department of mediumship that 
are practically impossible in the great majority of cases, 
while a great many things that appear to belong to medium- 
ship in the mental departments are attributed to spirits 
that do not really belong to them. In the first place there 
are three factors concerned in this kind of mediumship: the 
spirit controlling, the mental atmosphere and characteristics 
of the medium controlled, and the mental atmosphere of the 
people constituting the company surrounding the medium 
when he is controlled. These are three very important 
points; and much of the confusion, doubt, and difficulty that 
has beset the pathway of mediumship in its mental develop- 
ments could have been cleared up and relieved by an 
understanding of two of the factors, — the mental atmos- 
phere of the medium and that of the sitters. We are 



MEDIUMSHIP. 41 



leaving, of course, now, all consideration of what are called 
test controls, for they really come practically within the 
lines of the consideration we have formerly mentioned. 
We shall have to deal hereafter with the mental character- 
istics in the operation of spirits from the spiritual 
world and its effect upon the subject, and the reactionary 
results of that effect as affecting the medium and the 
control. 

Experimental observation shows us that there is pro- 
ceeding from every individual a certain mental atmos- 
phere, and that this mental atmosphere contains or com- 
prises within itself, is made up, in fact, of the mental and 
intellectual life of the individual, — is tinged, colored, and 
characterized by all the thoughts, education, experiences, 
reflections, and mental observations of the individual; it 
contains within itself, too, all the potencies that were 
born with the individual, and these have to be seriously 
reckoned with by the spirit world. For instance, a certain 
manner of living inclines an individual to certain forms of 
thought, when by natural inheritance and disposition he 
is inclined to thoughts in another direction; but the over- 
whelming influence of temporary circumstances binds 
down the latent thought, crushes it, in fact, and prevents 
its expression. When a spirit encounters a mind thus 
situated, it is more than likely that the spirit-thought, de- 
scending upon the mentality of the medium, piercing and 
penetrating the conventional acquisitions, will go right 
down to the bottom, so to speak, and touch those in- 
herited tendencies, and quicken them into life and stimu- 



42 MEDIUMSHIP. 



late them into action; and so control the operation of that 
mentality, that, seemingly, a new mental character will be 
developed as a consequence of the unfoldment of medium- 
ship upon the mental side. Then, if you are unacquainted 
with the process we have just referred to and the circum- 
stances belonging to it, you will say the medium has im- 
bibed the mind of the spirit and become like the forces 
controlling him; whereas the real fact is that the spiritual 
influx has quickened the latent possibilities of the 
medium's mentality and brought it into active operation. 

Now this may be advantageous or disadvantageous. 
Generally speaking, it is disadvantageous, for this reason: 
nearly all the inherited experiences that you receive by 
birth are upon certain general lines, — general lines of igno- 
rance concerning spiritual matters; then, if the spirit- 
world, by the aid of the mental side of mediumship, 
endeavors to give correct interpretations to the mortal 
world, it is absolutely necessary that all the old and erro- 
neous opinions inherited by the medium shall be driven 
out, so that the mind may be clear. A practical illustra- 
tion will make this matter more intelligible to you. When 
our medium was first developed, he was precisely in the 
conditions we have just referred to; the circumstances of 
conventional life had forced his mind in a certain direc- 
tion, but inherently the character of his mind was quite 
different. It had inherited a somewhat religious inclina- 
tion and direction, and somewhat of spiritual feeling or 
character, mainly of what might be called the ordinary 
orthodox conventional Christian form. But when the 



MED1UMSHIP. 43 



spiritual influx affected his mental sphere, it had to pene- 
trate the two conditions, — the conventional opinions in 
which he had been trained, and then reach down 
to the inherited tendency that was underneath. His 
whole character had an orthodox tinge or hue; and he 
would tell you that when he first realized mediumship it 
was to him something of an orthodox religious character, 
as he understood it, and he felt that at last he was going to 
become a good Christian. But having stimulated these 
latent errors of the mind into action, we, by judicious 
processes, gradually ejected them, and at last cleared the 
mind of the residuum we found at the bottom of it; and 
then, having cleared the mentality, it was free for us to use 
for the training of his mind in the direction of the larger 
and wider ideas that we have endeavored to express to 
humanity for so many years past. 

When the mental sphere has been purified, much will 
depend upon the character of the mind, as to what use 
can be made of it. In some cases it becomes clairvoyant 
perception, in other cases it becomes inspirational; then 
there is an intuitive comprehension of spiritual principles, 
which, descending into the mind, stimulates it to activity, 
and enables it to intelligently express in glowing and beau- 
tiful phraseology the principles of the universe, of life and 
being; in other cases, there being organic and physio- 
logical susceptibility to enhancement, the individual 
becomes a " trance " medium through whom individual 
spirits may express themselves, or through whom certain 
particular spirits, or a particular spirit, may continue to 



44 MEDIUMSHIP. 



manifest for a length of years for the purpose of exalted 
training and teaching humanity at large. 

Thus you see there is the same breaking-up process, — the 
same stimulating and purifying processes taking place in 
the mental sphere when the mediumistic development 
reaches this department, as have taken place in the physio- 
logical department; and the result in both cases, where 
the mediumship is judiciously developed and carefully 
prosecuted, is the establishment of mental harmony, order, 
peace, and stability, as well as physical healthfulness; and 
these ought to be the results of every proper and orderly 
development of mediumship. 

One stage further remains for our consideration, which 
is the spiritual side of the question. Here we have to 
consider two important things. First, the effect of the 
mediumship upon the spiritual body, and secondly, its 
effect upon the spirit itself, the essential me. The effect 
of the spiritual side of mediumship must be a continuation 
of its development from the mental sphere on to the spirit- 
ual brain, — from the external side to the internal side. If 
the spiritual consciousness is to be reached, it can only be 
through the spiritual organism, just as the mental con- 
sciousness was reached through the physical organism. 
Then we have to bear in mind that this spiritual organiza- 
tion is a fact in existence now, and is being elaborated by 
the human body while it is living here in this world, that it is 
the intermediate condition between the outer body which 
is related to the external world, and the innermost of you — 
your essential nature — which is related to the inner world 



MEDIUMSHIP. 45 



of everlasting being; it is, as it were, the body of the soul, 
even as the physical body is the outer envelope of your 
present being. This inner body duplicates the outer one, 
and the effects that are possible with the outer body upon 
the external plane are possible with the inner body upon 
the inner plane; and when you can stimulate these latent 
subjective possibilities into operation, you are getting onto 
that road which takes you out of mediumship and brings 
you into the department where the individual exercise of 
your own powers becomes a possibility to you; for we may 
now tell you, that the true cultivation of mediumship is a 
stepping-stone to the exercise of your own spiritual powers. 
Where it goes on always being mediumship, where the 
individual is always the subject of a dominant and control- 
ing power, the day of tutelage is indefinitely prolonged, 
and no real advantage to the individual accrues. But 
when you can go progressively forward and reach that 
spiritual consciousness of the existence of the powers 
belonging to your own spirit, and can learn how to utilize 
them and project them through their counterparts in the 
material body, then you open the door of the occult for 
yourself and are able to perform these marvels; and being 
able to intromit yourself into the spiritual state, you can 
express through the outer life what you gather therein. 

Mediumship, then, is a tutelage that leads you forward 
from the recognition of the fact that there are possibilities 
in you that others can utilize, to the understanding of the 
greater fact that you can utilize these possibilities for 
yourself. Mediumship, if you will foster and nourish it 



46 ' MEDIUMSHIP. 



and follow it intelligently, will at last place the key in 
your hands; and the benign and beneficent intelligences 
of the spiritual world will say to you, ' ' My brother (or my 
sister), open thou the gate for thyself; we will be there to 
help and to aid you, now that you have reached that point 
where you are capable of walking alone; you have taken 
the first two steps in due and proper form; we have led 
you forward, we have opened the veils one and two for 
you, and now here stands the third already parted; 
take thou the step with earnest heart and hand, and steady 
foot; we will help you and lead you, but now your day of 
tutelage is almost done, and you can stand crowned with 
the glory and consciousness of individual culture, and the 
mysteries, as they are called, of the subjective realm are 
open to you." 

"Ah!" some will say, "that is all very well; but we see 
mediums utterly oblivious to all this, who have no other 
thought of the value of mediumship than the material 
wealth they can accumulate by its exercise, and who 
degrade the higher faculties you are referring to by 
stultifying them to all unworthy purposes, by pandering to 
ignorance, and generally doing their very best to degrade 
the very exalted functions they fulfill." Ignorance is 
the mother of many abominations, and ignorance is 
responsible here; for true knowledge never vitiates the 
divine realities of its possibilities, nor disgraces the 
functions with which it is bound up by development and 
education. 

Briefly, then, — very briefly and all imperfectly, we are 



MEDIUMSHIP. 47 



fain to confess, — we have passed in review before you the 
physiological, mental, and spiritual developments pertaining 
to the unfoldment of mediumship; and we have reached 
the last great conclusion, that mediumship leads on to a rec- 
ognition of the "adeptship," so to speak, — a personal, prac- 
tical knowledge of how to utilize your interior latent spiritual 
powers; and when you have attained this plane of spiritual 
development you are in harmony with wise and thoughtful 
intelligences and may be by them inspired, and by that 
inspiration your mind will be illuminated and your soul 
expanded, and you can stand up firmly, conscious in the 
reality and presence of the angels; for their thoughts will 
infilter into yours, your being will thrill with spiritual 
forces, and you will fbe rounded, developed, and strength- 
ened in character and nature, and you can become the 
healer, the helper, the teacher of the world, aided by the 
powers of the immortal life that shall work within you, and 
in all such exercise find perfect health of body, perfect 
soundness of mind, perfect purity of moral nature, perfect 
cleanliness of soul. These are the sure and certain 
results that shall crown your efforts, as you march up 
through the pathways of mediumship into the better and 
more delightful ways of true, spiritual growth and 
•nfoldment. 

Here, then, let us pause. Remember all we have said; 
take its cautionary parts clearly to your judgment and 
understanding; and remember in every case that success 
entails effort, for something will always have to be given or 
done if something is desired in return. There is no royal 



48 MEDIUMSHIP. 



road. The greatest warning we can give you is, that in 
no case should this mediumistic development be sought; 
but wherever it spontaneously and naturally presents itself, 
then carefully pursue it, and apply the experiences and 
knowledge thus obtained to assist you in making greater 
advancement and further advantage as you proceed upon 
the road of personal unfoldment. As we have often said 
before, it is better to perform the humblest and most 
menial tasks of life successfully and be a benefit to the 
world, than waste your time in unwise endeavors to develop 
occult possibilities in your natures, when your present 
mortal conditions allow you scarcely any possibility of 
either success or usefulness therein. 




THIRD LECTURE. 
mediumship (continued): its foundation, development, 

DANGERS, AND ADVANTAGES. 



The foundation of mediumship lies deeper than mere 
physiological sensitiveness or adaptation. It is not alto- 
gether a question of the external physiological life of man, 
but it relates to certain essential principles in the nature 
of man. If you clearly understand that through the 
agency of mediumship you are able to come en rapport 
not only with the spiritual world, but with the intelligences 
who people that world, there will of course then be presented 
to you the suggestion of subtle and subjective qualities and 
relationships in the nature of man which relate him to 
the world that lies beyond. The existence of mediumship 
is not only the proof, or the means whereby the proof of 
the existence of spirits and their return is presented to 
humanity, but it argues the existence of a realm of 
subjective possibilities in man's nature, the investigation 
of which causes you to realize the fact that you are actually 
now expressing subjective or spiritual powers, — that, in a 
sentence, the operations of mediumship are the indication 
of the existence of superior powers latent in humanity 
while living in this world. 



50 MEDIUMSHIP. 



The foundation of mediumship, therefore, really rests upon 
the existence of the immortal spirit itself; and its develop- 
ments are the manifestations of spiritual powers and faculties 
resident in your natures now, which, through exceptional 
circumstances, are made manifest and visible to your sight 
and understanding. 

Therefore, mediumship opens up a very wide series of 
considerations. The existence of subjective powers within 
yourselves; the existence of a subjective source within 
yourselves from whence those powers are derived, or in 
which they inhere; the existence of a still more subjective 
universe to which that subjective or inner source is neces- 
sarily related; and as that source is the superior centre 
within yourselves, that universe to which it is related 
must necessarily be a superior universe in itself, and 
as you have a relationship to it by the very fact 
of its existence, mediumship may be said to be rooted in 
the very constitution of the universe itself, — is part and 
parcel of the orderly possibilities of existence, has nothing 
miraculous, nothing special about it, but is a legitimate 
and sequential unfoldment of the innate possibilities of the 
universe and man. This is the very highest presentation 
of the foundation of mediumship. Let us forsake it for a 
few moments and direct our attention to its foundations in 
the external life. 

Of necessity we must look to the physiological system of 
man for the matters we are in search of. We must look 
also in the mental departments for the means by which 
sympathetic brain-waves are set in motion, and their results 



MEDIUMSHIP. ' 51 



transmitted in the various forms of intellectual or subjec- 
tive mediumship; we must look for the still more recondite 
expressions of mediumship in the superior faculties of the 
mind which are related to the spiritual nature itself, and 
in those departments of inspiration, of clear seeing, spirit- 
ual perception and discerning, and those clairaudient 
faculties, whereby you are brought into telephonic commu- 
nication with and catch the vibrating thoughts and emana- 
tions of the immortal world, — we must look in these higher 
branches for some of the foundations for the working of 
mediumship upon the subjective plane. But we must 
remember that mediumship is not confined to those 
phenomena which take place within and are actually 
expressed by the personality of the medium. We must 
remember that there is a sphere of operation inmediumistic 
development and phenomena that is beyond, so to speak, 
the individuality and personality of the medium, to a very 
large extent. There are, in a word, the external physical 
phenomena, and we must look for the foundation of those 
phenomena, as well as for those of a more recondite nature. 
For the sake of convenience, we may divide medium- 
ship into two classes. On one hand, the subjective men- 
tal phenomena; on the other hand, the objective or physi- 
cal mediumship. Mediumship is, of course, involved in 
both cases, but it is scarcely correct to speak of it as 
mediumship generically in both relations; for on the exter- 
nal plane we have the simple fact that owing to the 
existence of a certain subtle force — or emanation — which 
surrounds the subject, certain physical, audible signs and 



52 MEDIUMSHIP. 



tokens and sounds can be produced, certain physical 
tangible phenomena be performed, — these being the 
objective form of results. Then, on the other hand, 
the individual, physically, mentally and spiritually, 
being actually directed by a controlling intelligence 
for the definite expression of all the intellectual qualities 
and personal attributes that make up individuality 
in its detailed form of expression, gives voice and manifes- 
tation to the personality of the mind controlling him, 
giving here the mental form of mediumship, in which case 
you have mediumship pure and simple. The individual 
becomes the vehicle or the medium for the actual trans- 
mission of the intelligence and will and understanding of 
a personality beyond himself. In the former case it is the 
material emitted from the individual that forms the means 
of connection between the material and spiritual states, 
and upon which the spiritual operators are dependent for 
the performance of the various matters they may have 
before them. Of course it is mediumship in this case, 
because the individual is the medium from which is de- 
rived this fluid necessary for the production of the phe- 
nomena. We think you will agree with us that a more 
definite and correct interpretation of the word medium- 
ship would be to associate it with that phase where the 
individual becomes the agency for the actual transmission 
of another's intelligence and understanding through his 
ordinary personality. 

The foundation of the external form of mediumship 
must be sought in the realm of nature, just the same as the 



MEDIUMSHIP. 53 



foundation of the internal or subjective form of medium- 
ship is to be found within the personality and spiritual 
possibilities of the individual. We have no sort of sympa- 
thy with that doctrine that makes mediumship a gift from 
God to man, in the sense of its being considered a special 
gift from God ' to man . God never gives special gifts to 
any one; he has no favorites. Why should he have ? There 
is no necessity for him to give one a rose and another a 
thorn. He is the Universal, All-loving and All-just, and, by 
the universal principles of His being, He regulates and 
orders existence in every department in divine equality; and 
latently every individual possesses precisely the same 
qualities. True, it appears that the exercise or develop- 
ment of mediumship to-day is special and particular, but 
it is the special and particular manifestation of a universal 
possibility which will ultimately be realized by all man- 
kind. 

We want it distinctly understood that all the stories 
that you have read of mediumship being "a special 
gift from God," and of "the angels" coming down and 
giving you this " gift" or giving you the other "gift," or 
that you must be "the seventh son of a seventh son," or "the 
seventh daughter of a seventh daughter," and all such kind 
of nonsense, are wrong and absolutely absurd; there is no 
sort of truth in it at all; no mortal or spirit can put into a 
human being what is not there now. What can be done is 
this: The secret spring may be touched so that that which 
has not been hitherto known to exist may be developed 
and brought into exercise. But this is a very different 



54 MEDIUMSHIP. 



thing from giving you a "gift" or putting something into 
your nature that did not previously exist therein. 

Here we have two distinct grounds for the founda- 
tion of mediumship: the spiritual nature and relationship 
of man on the one side, subjectively; the possibilities of 
the universe upon the other side, objectively. How can 
you realize this last proposition ? You can only realize it 
by a course of speculation which, after all, is not so very 
speculative, since it is in strict harmony with ascer- 
tained fact. The man of science will tell you there is an 
intimate relationship, chemically and atomically, between 
every department of the universe; that the flash of a gun 
will produce an indefinitely extended and continuing effect 
through the realms of existence, even as the dropping of a 
pebble into the quiet bosom of a lake will cause a ripple 
that will finally extend from shore so shore. You cannot 
do one single thing in this room that shall affect the 
atmosphere without creating conditions that will react 
upon every human being here assembled, and the vibra- 
tions of the atmosphere from the voice of the instrument 
we are now using not only produce an effect upon your 
consciousness, but produce effects upon your nervous 
system through contact with the brain, and through the 
brain upon the entire physical organization; thus proving 
that there is a material correlative for every sound you 
receive, the results of which are distributed through the 
entire physical system of each and every one. 

These are facts, and very important facts, that are passed 
by without serious notice being given to them, and some- 



MEDIUMSHIP. 55 



times are ignored through actual ignorance. You will 
here see the truth of what we are going to place before you: 
for if every atom of matter is capable of affecting its 
neighbor, there will be an increasing effect expanding 
through all the departments possible to be affected under 
the particular circumstances. Therefore, throughout the 
entirety of being there is a sympathetic relationship be- 
tween points of force, or atoms, as they are commonly 
spoken of; which once set in motion here or there, a series 
of effects governed by their laws and relationships will be 
produced, — whether it be from the waving of the hand, the 
flash of a gun, the shouting of a voice, the falling of a 
body, or any other phenomenon that may occur. This 
point, is clear, then; and instead of the physical universe 
being a series of conditions jumbled together without any 
inherent and subtle relationship uniting them, the very 
converse of the proposition stands true: that every condi- 
tion of existence bears an intimate relationship to all other 
conditions; and the key note, so to speak, between them, is 
their mutual vibrations, repulsions, and attractions that run 
throughout the various modes of existence. 

Here, then, is the external form of mediumship. We 
must encounter this law, or else the argument falls to the 
ground. If any allege special mediumship is being ad- 
vanced beyond the laws of nature, then we frankly tell you 
we know nothing of such mediumship; we know nothing 
of any possibilities that are beyond the possibilities latent 
within the universe wherein they occur. The phenomena 
of external mediumship presents to you certain tangible 



56 MEDIUMSHIP. 



facts. How are they produced if the two. worlds, as they 
are called, — the natural and spiritual, — are distinct condi- 
tions with no continuous degrees between them ? There 
must be a point of contact, some neutral point in the scale 
relating the spiritual to the material; and in that neutral 
point, where the material and spiritual blend, will be found 
the condition that enables the beings of that other world 
to hold communication with this world. So on the neu- 
tral line must be sought a point where this can be accom- 
plished. The organic structure of man is immediately 
associated with the nervous forces, and the spiritual 
beings can use this refined force, — which, being related 
through the human organism to the chemical forces of the 
universe, will form a point of contact for the spirits with 
man's physical conditions; the point of contact being in the 
superior physiological forces; and so gradually descending 
to the muscular forces, wherein the spiritual WDrld finds the 
means of producing the external phenomena, the nature and 
character of which you are more or less familiar with. 

The foundation of mediumship, then, is in Being, in the 
principles of existence, in harmony with the innate possi- 
bilities of human nature, is a natural faculty and possibility 
of the individual, and a universal law in harmony with 
the principles of God. Here, then, superstition and all 
kinds of ignorance concerning mediumship vanish, for 
we find it rooted in Nature, in Man, and in God; and with 
such a triune foundation there is no need of seeking 
another, for no better foundation need be sought. 

How shall mediumship be developed? Here again is 



MEDIUMSHIP. 57 



a fruitful theme, for a superstitious crop of errors is pre- 
sented to the inquirer in this connection. We should not 
do justice, if we dealt with this topic in pleasant and 
soothing words. You must remember that you are mortal 
beings as well as spiritual beings; you must remember you 
are related to a world of sense, matter, and time, as well as 
to their immortal counterparts; and bearing this in mind 
you should deduce from it the lesson that there are duties 
due to this world now, as well as duties due to the world 
towards which you are going. That condition to which 
you belong, for the time being, has the primary claim 
upon you; that condition of existence towards which you 
are going has then, now, a secondary claim upon you. 
Give, then, to this world while you are in it, that due re- 
gard and proper consideration its primary claims upon you 
demand. In so doing you will find ample leisure, if you 
will, to consider those secondary relationships in regard to 
the world towards which you are tending. 

We want you to understand that the development of 
mediumship is a matter of very serious consideration. We 
have been consulted over and over again in very many 
places as to the propriety of developing mediumship; and 
we have had to tell many that, as the indications of the 
possible development of their mediumship were exceed- 
ingly small, they had better devote all their spare time 
to washing dishes and cleaning windows, for then they 
would be doing something serviceable with the powers 
they possess. You can waste your time, you can sit in 
circles, absorb all kinds of psychological influences, ex- 



58 MEDIUMSHIP. 



haust your own, and in many cases become so filled up 
with contending influences that you are in a state of psy- 
chological fever all the time, or so exhaust yourself that 
you will become as limp and useless as a rag. This is 
not the way to use the opportunities you have; and you 
should avoid the injudicious, promiscuous, and insane 
methods of development of many who are extremely 
anxious to develop you as mediums, and who often bring 
discredit upon the subject of mediumship, and do no one 
the slightest practical good, — not even themselves. 

It may be thought we are speaking against our own 
cause; it may occur to you that the greater the number of 
mediums, the greater the army that is dispensing truth 
throughout the world. Let us caution you that the devel- 
opment of mediumship ought not to be the highest aim of 
individual existence. There are duties to be done here; 
soil to be cultivated, men to be clothed, honorable service 
to be given to humanity at large; some fair and just return 
for all the privileges and advantages conferred upon you, 
which tend to make the world happier and wiser, — to build 
up the constitution of human society wisely and truly, so 
that at last the divine temple of a happy, virtuous, and 
noble humanity shall disclose its glorified proportions to 
the world at large; — these things leading to such results 
being wisely and honestly performed by you will infinitely 
bless and better the world, and give you a nobler purpose 
in life than will the development of mediumship, which in 
many cases has no other benefit or result than the gratify- 
ing of vanity or a craving after notoriety. 



MEDIUMSHIP. 



59 



Mediumship, when it comes spontaneously, is in the 
most of cases that mediumship which is likely to be the most 
satisfactory; and when it comes spontaneously and mani- 
fests itself unsought and uncalled for, you can generally 
depend upon it that the unseen directors can give you 
that needful instruction you require during its develop- 
ment. Let us suppose an ideal case. In the first 
instance, the development of mediumship for purely 
physical or external phenomena does not make any real 
demand upon the intelligence or morality of the individual. 
Here is a point that a great deal of sophistry has been 
expressed upon. This very argument, perfectly true in 
itself, has been the peg upon which has been hung the 
most wretched garments that Spiritualism has had in its 
wardrobe. Let it be clearly stated that though the 
external physical phenomena of mediumship make no 
real demand upon the morality or intelligence of the 
individual, yet the demand is just as true in that case, — of 
that individual as in every other. When any condition of 
life or service is construed into an absolution of moral 
responsibility or intellectual development, then that 
service is an injury to the world and a curse to the 
individual. We place it clearly and plainly before you, 
that personal moral responsibility must enter into the 
development of all forms of mediumship. What, then, shall 
we say in regard to the physical health of the individual ? 
These phenomena of the external forms of mediumship 
depend upon the muscular, nervous, and physiological 
forces, and therefore everything that tends to maintain the 



6o MEDIUMSHIP. 



physical health of the individual is absolutely necessary. 
Let us give you an illustration: You are, of course, more 
or less familiar with what is generally describable as 
athletics, and are aware of the fact that the athlete has to 
go through a very severe course of physical training before 
he is considered fit to race, wrestle, run, or jump. You 
know how carefully he is trained, how his exercise is at- 
tended to, his diet looked after, and how he is bathed and 
rubbed, — taken as much care of as though he was to be sold 
for five hundred dollars a pound actual weight. The very 
best possible care is taken of him, because it is found by ex- 
perience absolutely needful to get this man into such splendid 
physical condition that he can accomplish his task to the 
best advantage. 

If this be the case with the athlete, how much more 
necessary that this should be done for those who have 
to stand virtually as gateways between the two worlds ! 
If it is so absolutely necessary that man shall be 
physically clean, strong, sound, and muscular that he may 
be a successful athlete, how much more, we ask, is it 
necessary that the same good training, the same care of 
health of body, the same development of nervous force, 
the same development of the entire physical man, should 
be demanded and insisted upon in the development of 
mediumship on the external plane. Take the argument 
and consider it for yourselves. It needs no enforcement 
from us. We repeat that the development of physical 
mediumship should be always associated with the greatest 
possible attention to the health of the individual concerned, 



MEDIUMSHIP. 6 1 



as well as the strictest attention to the cultivation of the 
moral and intellectual natures. 

When we take the subjective side of the question, we. 
are told the case is very difficult; we must not allow the 
personality of the medium to interfere; the individual 
must be negative, he must be subjective, must be entirely 
put upon one side. The penalty of mediumship is very 
great according to this; the individual is not worth much 
as a medium unless he is mentally and personally crushed 
down to almost perfect nonentity. Is not this asking 
a very great price ? Is it not inflicting a very severe 
penalty? You pride yourself upon your individuality, 
your strength of mind and intellect, and will you be 
willing to have all this crushed out of sight? "Well, no, 
I do not think I would," you say. How many people 
have said: "If I was not made unconscious I would like 
to be a medium, but I could never submit to have my 
consciousness extinguished and my individuality put upon 
one side." There is the instinctive protest of the soul 
itself against subjection and domination, and it is a voice 
you should heed at all times. " But when mediums are 
positive they cannot be controlled, they are opposing the 
spiritual world." How is that? "Well, they are too 
positive." Can you not draw the line between excitement 
of mind and strength of mind? There is a very important 
distinction between the two conditions. You may be 
mentally all points and needles, like the quills of a 
hedge-hog, which would aptly represent your mental 
excitement; but such excitement has nothing to do with 



62 MEDIUMSHIP. 



your sympathy of mind, nor the strength of your mind. 
If it is possible for intelligent spirits to control weak minds, 
surely it should be equally possible for intelligent spirits to 
co?ne into sympathy with strong minds. Therefore we draw 
the line here. There is on the one hand a mesmeric 
sensitiveness — called mediumship — where susceptibility, 
sympathy, and negativeness are absolutely necessary; but 
on the other hand there is that other kind of mediumship 
where strength of mind, cultivation of mind, aspiration of 
mind, are equally necessary. In the one case you have 
the presentation of the individuality, sentiment, thought, 
and character of particular and individual spirits embodied 
and disbodied; on the other hand, you have the subjective 
trance, the subjective inspiration, and subjective aspiration 
of your own immortal soul, and the inspirations of the per- 
sonalities of the spirit -world working through the entranced 
brain and body, which gives what is known as inspirational 
speaking, trance speaking, and such kind of matters as are 
related to these particular departments of mediumship. 
Now, though it is apparently true that under what we have 
considered the mesmeric department of the subject there 
should be negativeness of mind, we want you to under- 
stand what is meant by being negatively-minded. We do 
not mean that the mind should be so weakened that the 
personality becomes destroyed. Between the sympathetic 
attitude and the nothingness attitude of mind, if we may 
so describe it, there is an important distinction; for the 
best of mediums for the spirit-world are those who are 
mentally sympathetic, and not those who allow themselves 



MEDIUMSHIP. 63 



to become mental nonentities. The spirit-world can do 
as it likes, so to speak, with one of these nonentities, can 
twist up his brains and do extraordinary things with 
him; but at what cost? — the cost of the intellectual 
strength and mental life of the individual so performed 
upon! For our own part we look upon such mediumship, 
in the great majority of cases, as destructive of all self- 
control and individuality in the persons concerned. The 
development of mediumship, then, should be the develop- 
ment of the body, mind, and soul of the individual, with 
due and proper attention to every law of health, to every 
law of mental culture, and every law of spiritual unfold- 
ment; and a medium so developed is strengthened in every 
department of his being, and benefited instead of injured 
by his mediumship. 

What are the dangers? The dangers are greater, 
perhaps, than you may think. It is very pleasant indeed 
to be the servant of the angels, to have wise and mighty 
souls come from their high estate to inspire, control, and 
direct you; very sweet, very beautiful, indeed, is all this. 
But if you are not careful, rigidly discriminative and 
exclusive, you may run the danger of encountering wolves 
in sheep's clothing; for it is unwise to assume that every 
spirit in the spirit-world is as good as yourself. "Oh! but 
that would cause us to become suspicious, and if we 
become suspicious, we shall become harsh, uncharitable, 
and unjust." Indeed! Do you let every one into your 
house who may choose to knock at your door ? Do you 
sit every person who comes into your house down to your 



64 MEDIUMSHIP. 



table? Do you go out into the street and shake hands 
in friendliness with every passer-by? "Oh, certainly 
not! We have to recognize the necessity of exercising 
reserve and discretion in* these matters." Then, if you 
recognize the necessity of a reasonable discretion with 
your associations with spirits while they have bodies, why 
not apply the same discrimination to them when they are 
out of their bodies ? It is not the bodies that you are careful 
about, it is the people who live in the bodies. The same 
people -live after they have gone out of their physical 
bodies, for the immortal soul is in the same condition 
immediately after it passes out into the spiritual world as 
it was while in this world. When you have tested and 
tried a person and found him true and honorable, 
you are willing to shake hands and say, "Welcome, good 
friend, we are glad to see you;" but to indiscriminately 
open your doors may be to let in all kinds of undesirable 
people, as many Spiritualists forming promiscuous circles 
have found to their bitter cost in days gone by. Unless 
you test and prove the spirits when they come to you, you 
are liable to be overrun by the dwellers upon the thresh- 
old, who may work upon your sympathies, who may have 
an exceedingly good time, so far as they are concerned, 
but, unfortunately, at your expense. The dangers, then, 
if you are lacking in discrimination, if you surrender your 
reason and judgment to the spirits simply because they 
are spirits, — the danger is that you may be deluded, that 
disaster will overtake you, that sorrow and regret will 
associate themselves with you; and in many cases we have 



MEDIUMSHIP. 65 



found that the results of ignorance or want of care in 
these directions have been, that the investigator has 
grown disgusted by these experiences, dismissing the 
whole question. 

There are personal dangers; dangers in regard to 
the health, dangers in regard to the mind, dangers in regard 
to the nervous condition. The inordinate practice of me- 
diumship is just as injurious to bodily health as the 
inordinate practice of any other phase of human activity. 
You must remember that in the matter of mediumship the 
strain is upon the most refined forces of the human nature, 
and these refined forces being the most powerful forces, 
presuppose by their exhaustion a great drain upon all the 
powers of the system. The exercise of mediumship, then, 
indiscriminately and persistently pursued, will lay up stores 
of bodily and mental trouble that will come to you by 
and by in a physical eclipse, involving muscular and 
nervous paralysis, — in the drying up, so to speak, of the 
vital juices of your being, which will cause you to grow 
prematurely old, and utterly destroy health of body and 
vigor of mind. These dangers may be obviated, in regard 
to health, if mediumship be exercised and restrained 
within certain limits or bounds. The other dangers have 
been stated in the possibility of your being imposed upon 
by spiritual vagrants, dwellers upon the threshold, who 
may come just for the purpose of amusing themselves and 
bewildering you. 

One further word of caution. It is a little personal, we 
admit, but its value we think sufficiently plain to excuse 



66 MEDIUMSHIP. 



its introduction. Under all circumstances receive with 
the utmost reserve and caution long-winded "communi- 
cations" from notable characters, who claim to be 
"Napoleon Bonapartes", "Lord Bacons", "Socrates", 
or other great personages; for in the majority of cases 
you can value the communication precisely in reverse of 
the name attached to it. Humanity is so fond of receiving 
a great name's seal upon some particular communication, 
that these dwellers upon the threshold, knowing how 
anxious you are to communicate with a "Raphael," a 
"Buddha", or a "Jesus", will try to personate them just 
to see what you have to say; but when you listen to them, 
and use your judgment, you will in such cases certainly 
think these great (?) ones have run to seed in the spirit- 
world, because of the rubbish they strive to force upon 
you. We would again earnestly impress it -upon your 
mind that the value of the communication in nine cases 
out of ten is exactly the converse of the importance of the 
name attached. 

What are the blessings of mediumship ? The advan- 
tages of mediumship when rightly and orderly developed 
are great indeed. When the laws of mediumship are more 
thoroughly understood and obeyed, it will surely result in 
the evolution of the highest possible harmony of all the 
forces within the physical environment itself. In* other 
words, it will be found that the highest conditions of 
mediumship are perfectly compatible with the highest condi- 
tion of physical health; it will be discovered that the in- 
spirations from the spirit-world are in harmony with the 



MEDIUMSHIP. 67 



highest unfoldment of the intellectual powers and nature 
of man, and that strength and character of mind, instead 
of repelling the operations and inspirations of the spirit- 
world, will really attract them and draw them to you; and 
when you make the best use of them,, when their fertiliz- 
ing influence falls upon you and enters the calm recesses 
of your mind, the spirit develops and aspires to reach still 
higher and purer things. It shall invest you with such per- 
sonal greatness and goodness that you shall stand up among 
your fellows clothed with power from on high; and the 
wise and good, seeing you have diligently used and culti- 
vated your noblest powers here, that you might grow in 
mind and soul, will feel that they can help you by tueir 
counsel and guidance from time to time. It is indeed a 
blessing to know that your dead are living; a sweet and 
glorious consolation to have them come back to you, 
counsel with you, advise you, and help you in your on- 
ward pathway as you journey through the mortal sphere. 
It is well to have this assurance and this guidance, and if 
you make a wise use of this knowledge, comport yourself 
in harmony with their desires, you may walk and live in 
the daily consciousness of angel ministry. These advan- 
tages of mediumship extend into the realms of nature, and 
give you a suggestion of the possibilities upon the psycho- 
logical plane (the almost infinite possibilities, we might 
call them) of the immortal nature of man while in the 
garments of flesh, and how the relationships between the 
natural and spiritual worlds bring the whole universe into 
harmony with yourself,and yourself into harmony therewith. 



68 MEDIUMSHIP. 



The advantages of mediumship shall hereafter be health 
of body, development of mind, unfoldment of soul, sweet 
communion with the angels of the life beyond, a real- 
ization of your spiritual possibilities while embodied 
here on earth, an understanding in part of the wondrous 
phenomena in the external universe around you; the ad- 
vantages of mediumship, in a word, will result in the real- 
ization of the fact that the universe and man are in perfect 
harmony, unity, and relationship. 

Here, then, on broad and general principles in 
harmony with law, without special and particular 
argument which is unnecessary to the case, we have 
px\, dented in these two discourses the subject of medium- 
ship in what we consider to be its laws and principles, its 
higher import, its deeper relationship; and we give it to 
you in the strongest terms and in the most earnest manner 
we can present it, that the development of mediumship 
should be accepted as a sacred trust: for it is an unfold- 
ment that lifts you up to the highest and noblest powers 
of your being, brings you into relationship with the solemn 
possibilities of life, links you to the immortal world 
beyond; and as you rightly use it and reverently pursue it, 
and labor for its highest and best advantage, it will assure 
you not only the comfort arising from the presence and 
guidance of wise and loving angels, but by it you will gain a 
knowledge of the laws and principles by which they can 
come to you, — by it you will inform yourselves of your 
spiritual possibilities here and now; but, better than all, 
it will enable you to crown your days with health of body, 



MEDIUMSHIP. 



6 9 



soundness of mind, and purity of soul, without which the 
grandest mortal achievements fall into sorrow and 
darkness, — but when accompanied with these three 
divinely glorious possessions, life becomes a long summer 
dream of use and beauty to your fellows and yourselves. 




FOURTH LECTURE. 

MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 



The present lecture is to deal with three very important, 
and, to a very large extent, much misunderstood subjects; 
namely, Magic, Sorcery, and Witchcraft. We shall 
endeavor to place these three topics in their proper 
position, so far as we understand them; rescue them, where 
needs be, from misapprehension; and clear away some 
proportion, at least, of the rubbish that has been associ- 
ated with them. 

To the average understanding there is something 
terrible in the associations that are connected with the 
terms Magic, Witchcraft, or Sorcery, and the uninstructed 
or uninformed shrink from all those who are supposed to 
be possessed of powers in either of these directions. This 
shrinking is the outcome, in nearly all cases, of ignorance, 
— ignorance of the powers and forces that are utilized by 
those who are what might be called adepts in either of 
these departments; for generally people are ignorant of the 
fact that all that can be done by the witch, the magician, or 
the sorcerer are possibilities to everyone else besides, — to the 
unfortunate so-called victim as well as to the seemingly 
so-called more fortunate masters. 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 7 1 



The history of the world reveals the fact that the 
further we go back into the past, encountering the 
increasing ignorance of humanity in our backward prog- 
ress, the more of superstition do we find; and as we 
recede from the positive knowledge and practical evidences 
possessed by man to-day in regard to the laws and 
principles of nature, the more and more does the world of 
life and action become peopled with subjective individual- 
ities; and, instead of the ordinary laws of nature, and the 
principles of being, — as the man of science finds them 
to-day, — we find genii, and devils, and strange, mysterious 
dwellers in the earth, in the clouds, in the winds, and in 
the spaces of the upper air. The more we investigate 
these matters, the grosser and grosser become these 
peculiarities, until they reach the age of barbarism; when 
they become so crude and devilish as to fill your souls 
with loathing,as well as with wonder how it is possible for men 
to accept such interpretations of the phenomena of nature. 

Yet you have only to remember that ignorance is the 
fruitful mother of error, and that unintelligent minds are 
the resting-places of all the bat? and owls of superstition, 
to be at once placed in possession of the fact that the fur- 
ther you recede from the orderly facts of nature and retire 
into the chambers of speculation, the more certain is it 
you will lose law and order, and enter into that domain 
where fancy, superstition, and speculation run riot and 
hold high court, and seem to present a veritable witches'- 
Sabbath of riotous fancies. 

We do not wish you to understand us as arguing for a 



72 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

moment that the phenomena associated with Magic, Witch- 
craft, or Sorcery, are untrue, — that is to say, that such things 
do not exist and such phenomena do not occur. This is 
not the impression we wish to convey to you; the 
impression we wish to place upon your mind is, that the 
aforesaid phenomena do exist and do occur, but that the 
cause of them and the interpretation of them, and the 
means by which they can be obtained, are not of the char- 
acter hitherto associated with them. 

Magic may be accepted as the supposed practice of the 
higher forces of the magician's power; sorcery may be 
accepted as the lower manifestation of the like power; 
while witchcraft gives us the disorderly manifestation of 
sporadic spiritual phenomena transpiring among certain 
portions of the human family, who are to-day known as 
mediums, but whose powers are under the more or less 
orderly control of spirits. Bearing distinctly in mind the 
superstitions associated with what is now known as Spirit- 
ualism, in the earlier days of civilization, you will be the 
better prepared to accept what we are now about to present 
for consideration. 

Magic has been divided into three forms, Black, White, 
and Red, while some writers have added to it also the 
consideration of Grey magic. But this distinction by 
color only refers to the degree of moral quality (or the lack 
of it) that may be involved in the operations concerned. 
The magician is supposed to be an individual, who, by cer- 
tain training or hereditary descent, possesses a peculiar 
power and develops certain possibilities far beyond those 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 73 

possessed or developed by the majority of his fellows. Not 
only is he supposed to possess this power in himself, but 
this power is supposed to give him the ability to control 
certain orders of invisible beings; or, in other cases, to 
bring himself into harmony with certain orders of invisible 
beings; or, under certain other conditions, to entreat the 
assistance and bring down the presence of still more supe- 
rior powers than either of these just referred to; while the 
lowest forms of magical exercise are supposed to be a con- 
trol of the demons, sprites, and spirits of this world, — the 
lower classes of alleged subjective materio-spiritual 
entities. 

Now here we have in the matter of magic three separate 
planes of operation. In the first place it might be in- 
ferred that the operations would all pertain to this 
world's life, its selfish desires, its individual peculiarities 
and necessities, and most likely would belong to those 
matters which are dark, degrading, and possibly undesir- 
able. Here, then, we shall likely find all the superstitious 
forms of invoking and evoking, by weird and strange pro- 
cesses, these alleged spirits of earth, air, fire, water, etc. 
Startling stories are told you of Occult gatherings where, 
under mysterious oaths in magical circles, with peculiar 
odors, with strange and curious symbols, with many peculiar 
personal preparations, you are introduced to that magic 
chamber where these mysterious entities are, and by such 
processes they are brought to you and made your servants. 
But fearful oaths of silence are imposed upon you, and 
you are forbidden for your life to step outside of the 



74 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

charmed circle wherein you have been placed for safety. 
We have very little hesitation in saying that while the 
phenomena are perfectly true, the interpretation of them 
is decidedly erroneous, and that this phase of magic is 
strictly possible of interpretation in accordance with the 
ordinary laws of life, both in nature and yourself. 

When we step out of this lower circle of operation into 
the intermediate, where the magician is more on a level 
with the spiritual intelligences he invokes, then we leave 
the lower orders of alleged quasi-spiritual entities outside, — 
we come out of the spirits of the earth, the water, and air, 
witches, and what not, — and come into the class of spiritual 
intelligences who are really disembodied intelligences, 
the people who have lived in this world or alleged intelli- 
gences who have never lived in this world, but who in 
either case are intelligent, rational personalities. They 
may be appealed to for comfort and for aid, but are sup- 
posed to be more or less in harmony with, and under the 
influence of, these magicians who call them. In the 
higher planes there is so much that you are already ac- 
quainted with in spiritual communications that but very 
little explanation is necessary from us on that point. You 
appeal to the highest spiritual intelligences, you ask them 
to come to you, you desire their presence, and you invoke 
their aid and counsel; and you do this as Spiritualists, 
to-day, — as it has been done in the world for thousands of 
years past. 

Now, to show you how clearly all this may be properly 
interpreted and a true light cast upon it, let us call your 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 75 

attention to sundry facts that you, as Spiritualists, are 
practically familiar with. In the formation of your 
spiritual circles you have all the elements that the magician 
has in the formation of his mystic circle; but you do not 
burn incense, you do not mix magical compounds and set 
fire to them, you do not draw a circle upon the ground 
and mark signs therein, you do not feel that you are 
going to draw up hell to minister to your evil needs, or 
make sprites, gnomes, or fairies obey you, or go out of 
the earthly life yourself, or call down the great ones of 
the world beyond and command them to be your ministers; 
but, instead, you feel you are forming a circle for the 
purpose of the evolution of spiritual phenomena. You 
are virtually and practically embodying and obeying all 
that magicians have been able to do in the past; and the 
real result of circle-holding, when scientifically attended 
to, is a reduction of the magic of antiquity to the orderly 
and lawful expression of spiritual phenomena in modern 
times, — neither more nor less. 

Then you will ask us why are these incantations neces- 
sary? Why these mystic surroundings? Why this gloom ? 
and why this wonderful personal preparation ? They are 
all indicative of certain essential laws and principles that, 
when better observed in the light of an intelligent under- 
standing of to-day, will always assure your spiritual circle 
a far greater measure of success than would be the case 
by ignoring them. There can be no harm, and possibly 
much good, in the preparation for attending such circles 
by bodily purity, both in the outer person and inward 



76 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

character, — in the cultivation of meditation, spiritual 
aspiring, and of the finer and better graces of nature. 
There can be no harm in being purer outwardly, inwardly, 
physically, mentally, and spiritually; no harm in your 
assembling in a room especially charged with the vital ic 
forces of those who are to constitute the " magic/' or 
spirit circle; no harm to prepare and form the condi- 
tions by which you can supply force and power which the 
intelligences on the other side can use; no harm in open- 
ing these circles in unity of mind and harmony of purpose, 
which enables the invisible intelligences to enter into your 
presence; no harm in aspiring for the highest and the best 
to hold communication with you; no harm in having 
pleasant and comfortable surroundings, and due consider- 
ation to the solemnity of the deep relationships between 
the two worlds, of which you distinctly partake. There 
can be nothing objectionable, we repeat, in all this; be- 
cause much good may come from it. In obeying these 
requirements faithfully, then, you will in these modern 
times be in harmony with the character of your present civil- 
ization, and in accordance with the exigencies of your 
own necessities, — you will reproduce the essential and really 
valuable part of magical services and incantations; but 
you will not have the spirits of the earth, the air, the 
water, or the fire, or any such entities, though you may draw 
down by these preparations and processes wise and intel- 
ligent spirits who have once lived in human life, — who shall 
counsel with you, and perhaps under certain conditions be 
able to attract to you certain cunning workers in psycho- 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 77 

logical forces, who can do strange things, create lights 
which float around you, etherealize forms and figures which 
float before you, make strange sounds, move bodies, 
entrance the members of the circle, and do a hundred and 
one things you have heard of in magical circles in olden 
times. 

Here you will see you are dealing with the outer fringe 
of so-called magic. There is, it is asserted, beyond this, 
a section deeper and greater, wherein the individual 
magician can command the service of the invisible forces; 
nay, some even go a stage further and say that the subtle 
forces of nature are and can be brought under the control 
of the will of man, and that there are people in the world 
to-day who can play with the forces of being so that they 
can send this thing and that thing upon you or to you, and 
in a hundred ways manifest their superiority to the laws of 
nature! We deny the postulate entirely. Our observation 
is extended, our experience has been wide-spread, for we 
have had an opportunity of investigating the so-called 
magic of the Oriental life, to which we belong; and we 
unhesitatingly affirm to you that when you divest magic of 
all its superfluous elements and bring it down to its basic 
facts and laws, you will find that all these enlarged state- 
ments are either thoughtless or willful exaggeration. If 
you investigate you will find that the alleged performers of 
occult things avoid giving any public statement, that they 
shelter themselves behind vows of secrecy, and refer only 
to the results of the powers which they say they possess; 
and if you bear this clearly in mind, then half the glory 



78 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

and three-fourths of the mystery associated with magic in 
the past will flee away forever. 

You may refer to the so-called occult and mystic orders 
of the East, — of India, Persia, and Egypt, and other lands, — 
and in every case when you refer to the Magi of the past you 
will always find them as we have just stated, when not 
teachers pure and simple; you will find that the Adept has 
been trained in a certain course of practical philosophy in 
regard toman's mental, psychological, and spiritual powers, 
and that this knowledge is " expressed in symbols and 
veiled in allegory;" but when you penetrate the symbol 
and interpret the allegory, you will have the same kind of 
knowledge that you, as Spiritualists, are familiar with 
to-day, — the same kinds of facts that Spiritualists are familiar 
with in this age. But to those who are not within the 
secret orders, who are not Adepts, and who are kept in the 
dark, these matters are exaggerated in importance and 
character. Examine the matter closely and you will find 
that it all comes down to the laws of nature and the powers 
of man, coupled with man's insatiable desire to gain 
knowledge, and the contempt which learning and experi- 
ence too frequently feel for ignorance and lack of progress. 
" But stories have been told us," you will say, " of most 
marvelous things. We have heard of the magicians of 
India, and others, who have done strange things. Now 
are not these magicians ?" Yes, and no. There is in 
man a power to use all beneath him or upon a level with 
him to the extent of his ability, but the extent of his 
ability is the governing proposition; he cannot go beyond 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 79 

that. The power of the will, governed by the enlightened 
soul and intelligence, can accomplish in many cases that 
which seems most remarkable to those who have not been 
so trained. The ordinary conjurer can do things with his 
hands that seem to surprise you beyond all expression, 
and you think he must be really endowed with magical 
powers; but he tells you that he simply does all these 
things by the quickness of the hand, and so defies the 
seeing of the eye; and likewise you will find that some of 
these "occult" stories have their foundation in the deft- 
ness of the hands rather than the exhibition of magical 
powers. 

When we have to deal with the effects magic is said to 
produce upon other people, we have to consider the Sor- 
cerer. Let us turn our attention to the operations of the 
Sorcerer for the "evoking" of spirits, "the casting of 
spells," " the giving of life and the bestowing of health;" 
the individual who claims to do this and that for you, who 
has a monopoly of influence, who can give you half the 
world if necessary, or aid you to accomplish some great 
purpose. Do you believe such things ? Do you believe 
that one individual, made like yourselves, organized and 
constituted like yourselves, having powers that you possess, 
has been permitted by the Almighty Intelligence to exer- 
cise such powers while here in this world, and arbitrarily 
interfere with all the laws and purposes of nature and God? 
If so, you believe things that are supremely silly, altogether 
beneath contempt, when viewed in the light of experience 
and the known laws and principles of the universe. The 



8o MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

effect produced by the Sorcerer, in three-fourths of 
cases, depends upon the fact of the victim's knowing that 
the power of the Sorcerer is being exercised against him. 
If you take that simple element out of the proposition, the 
power of the Sorcerer is reduced in the same proportion. 
When the power of the Sorcerer affects a result without the 
victim knowing what is being directed against him, you can 
then put it down that a mesmeric or psychological power 
is being directed by the Sorcerer towards the person. Take 
out these two elements, and sorcery becomes impossible. 
But, of course, you are far too intelligent to believe in 
such a thing as evoking his Satanic Majesty, — you have 
discarded all such opinions; and if you once empty the 
Christian hells, you might as well empty all hells beside, 
and just as well discard all the other devils, — for they are of 
the same general family. 

Here, then, we stand. All this question of "sorcery," 
supposed to be associated with the lower races of mankind, 
is but a blind and indefinite searching after the spiritual 
powers which you all possess, — is one of the expressions of 
spiritual growth, just as the exercise of magic is one of the 
expressions of psychological growth, of the power to use 
the psychological elements of your nature; they are indi- 
cations of what man is going to do and become by and by, 
indications all upon the lowest plane of individual develop- 
ment, — and when bereft of the superstitions that surround 
them, they are resolved into the simple facts of nature that 
in your larger experience you are familiar with to-day. 

We now come to the question of witchcraft. You have 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 



been bewitched by a laughing eye, a merry voice, a twist 
of the hair, a turn of the face, a charming manner, — oh! 
by these you have been bewitched beyond all power to 
resist; a spell has-been cast over you which you have felt 
for years afterwards, and you have thanked God for such 
bedevilment, — for it brought you all the happiness 
you had in life ! 

Here you have the secret of witchcraft, — the influence of 
one individual upon another. It may be laudable and 
good, or disgraceful and injurious; it may kindle into 
action the higher and better parts, or arouse all the lower 
and baser elements of you; may make you akin to the very 
angels themselves, or forge chains which shall bind you 
down to the lowest elements of sensuous life. 

Work out the problem on that line. All the witchery 
and bewitching resolves itself into psychological influences; 
the psychologist makes his subject believe that a cold coin 
is red hot, that a gentleman's walking-stick is the embodi- 
ment of the evil one, and by a thousand different things 
bewitches the intelligence and faculties and judgment of 
his subject, who, for the time being, is under a spell that 
compels him to do whatsoever the controlling mind desires 
or demands him to do; but the time was when these things 
were not understood, when those who were capable of 
exercising an influence upon other people were called 
"witches," were looked upon as devilish, and, mayhap, 
have paid for it by being roasted alive, as a burnt offering 
to heaven, as, indeed many were so treated. So, then, 
when we take witchcraft in this light, think of how many 



82 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

thousand of your fellow-creatures in this world have 
suffered pains and penalties because they possessed powers 
which God himself gave them; for the exercise of attri- 
butes with which you are familiar to-day, and which pass 
unchallenged in the community at large. 

Magic, Sorcery, and Witchcraft, then, in this light, 
bring themselves in line and harmony with the laws of nature 
and the possibilities of man; they are "uncanny" sub- 
jects only when you fail to understand what they involve; 
they are dreadful and horrible things to deal with when you 
are led into them blindfolded, and introduced to them in 
the dark; but when they come out to you in the bright light of 
day, when old associations fall from them, they stand out 
as prophecies of the powers that you are to-day personally 
acquainted with. 

We take Magic, then, in another form just for the 
moment, involving in this one term now the entire series 
of definitions that we have been dealing with; we will 
take it under the word Occultism, and here we find the 
exoteric and esoteric side of the question. You are asked 
to believe there is a secret side to knowledge that is only 
for those who are fitted to receive it; that there must 
be a special order, a special class of people to receive 
the secret wisdom of God, and that only these favored per- 
sons are entitled to receive his divine knowledge; that out- 
wardly it must be presented in symbols and allegories, 
and the common multitude who are not prepared to 
receive these things must be content to receive what the 
adepts and magi see fit to dispense to them. Three- 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 83 

fourths of this talk about modern Theosophy, and the 
presentation of it in this land, is only pandering to the 
most vicious element of the intelligence of the nineteenth 
century. Does not the charter of this country rest upon 
the glorious truth of universal brotherhood and universal 
equality of man before God and nature? Take out these 
two doctrines and the very soul and mind of this fraternal 
union of different states would crumble into ashes, be- 
cause the vital soul and mind that bind it would be 
taken from them. Theosophy shall tell you that there are 
only a special few who may pass the mystic portals, or lift 
the sacred veils and pass beneath them so that they 
stand before the inner shrines; while all you who are of 
the common clay outside must be content to hear but the 
echo of the music within, or receive it in symbols and 
allegories, from those who have passed into adeptship 
beyond, as they may choose to give it to you. Tear 
down such trashy doctrines, dispel all such murky 
clouds. Be not deceived by such specious statements; — 
they are the towers that selfishness and superstition erect 
to make something that may belong to all seem special and 
peculiar, and pertaining to a class alone. God's eternal 
universe knows no common people and no great people. 
In the essential soul of man are the everlasting principles 
of God, and those who are willing and those who are 
able, no matter what their creed, their race or color, have 
an inalienable right to the pursuit of truth, as well as the 
pursuit of happiness. 

Therefore we say that all these pretentious claims 



84 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

about Occultism, Theosophy, or the mystical developments 
of supernatural power are the claims of the ignorant, the 
deluded, or the charlatan. People are deluded and de- 
ceived by such pretensions, they not knowing all the points 
we have presented for consideration. Our purpose in 
these remarks is to inform them and bring them face to 
face with the fact, that whenever truth is divided in two, 
and half of it belongs to the tc initiates, 5 ' and the other 
half to those of the outer world, then we say that danger 
and difficulty lie in the pathway of the investigator; and 
one of the greatest dangers is a specious self-righteousness 
which causes its subjects to say, "Stand aside; I am holier 
than thou." This is what you wish to avoid; there must 
be none of the "I am holier than thou" in the pursuit and 
application of truth for the advancement of yourselves and 
the well-being of your fellows. 

Shall we, then, people the mystic temples of the past 
with the living|thoughts of the present ? shall we take to 
them our circles and our shrines ? shall we again illumine 
their sacred altars ? shall we fill their chambers with odors 
and perfumes ? must we as initiates be put through trying 
ordeals, invoke the powers of the lower, middle, and 
upper realms of nature ere we can enjoy the blessings 
of our Spiritualism? — these |are questions Spiritualists 
might well ask of the supporters of magic in their 
midst to-day. And shall we, with the light and guidance 
of modern psychology, indulge in the wild orgies of 
sorcery or witchcraft ? Or shall we turn aside from the 
old practices, remove the curtains, turn up the lights, put 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 85 

away the paraphernalia, and come down to the plain, simple 
truth, that the phenomenal aspects of Modern Spiritualism 
reproduce all the essential principles of the Magic, Witch- 
craft, and Sorcery of the past? The same powers are 
involved, the same forces are used, the same conditions 
are required, the same intelligences are operating; and 
the more you investigate the realms of nature by the light 
of science and experience, the less and less room you 
will find for the devils and genii of antiquity. 

Magic, Witchcraft, and Sorcery, when thus analyzed 
and interpreted, bring you at last only face to face 
with possibilities in nature, in harmony with her laws, in 
accordance with the possibilities of yourself, and in strict 
accordance with the abilities of operating spirits, who 
return into the mortal sphere and produce all the marvels 
that are alleged to have been performed in former times. 

It may be said in presenting this modern and practical 
interpretation of the three themes we have joined together, 
that we have ignored the existence of the great brother- 
hoods of the past. Nothing of the kind. We do not, 
since we are perfectly aware of their existence; but all 
they can present, all that they can do, is simply done in 
accordance with the laws of nature; and no man in any 
case can transcend the laws of nature, but in every case, 
no matter how startling the statement may be, the 
result has been accomplished in harmony with the laws of 
nature and the possibilities of man. Therefore, shall you 
waste the precious moments of mortal life in digging up 
the past when its facts are now living in your midst ? 

6 



86 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

Why turn to the years agone, why unearth the mysteries 
of psychological phenomena in bygone ages, when greater 
wisdom is manifested and greater things are actually 
transpiring in your midst to-day, and that, too, in the light 
of scientific fact and experience, and in accordance with 
the highest methods of investigation ? We will take the 
spiritual phenomena of the last forty years in connection 
with Modern Spiritualism, and boldly challenge the 
magical records of antiquity to produce anything equally 
satisfactory to the intelligence of to-day. 

Clearly, then, the past may be left alone; let the dead past 
bury its dead, and let the living present be concerned in 
developing the life that is, in an understanding of the 
latent powers of mind and body, brain and soul. By a 
proper understanding of the laws and principles con- 
necting the two worlds in harmony and unity, far greater 
marvels are revealed to you. You learn that a spirit can 
lift a solid article and transport it from one end of the 
room to the other; carry a message from one locality to 
another, carry your good-will or evil will to some person 
you love or dislike; that it can produce a bodily form, as 
well as reveal the mysteries of passing from the mortal 
existence. All these things are possible and do occur, and 
they occur because of the laws of nature. All that has 
been done by man in the past, and all that has been 
gained, you can do and you can gain; because every 
human being the wide world over is built upon the same 
lines of general organization, principle, and purpose. 

We leave the topic to your consideration, and urge 



MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 87 



you to accept this in conclusion: that the cultivation 
of the highest spirituality, the development of the 
noblest morality, the building up and strengthening of 
your will to its strongest point, living a cleanly and virtuous 
life, are the surest safeguards against the attacks of all 
kinds of sorcery and magic, of all sorts of witchcraft; that 
the facts of knowledge intelligently directed shall indeed 
make you a magician through the forces of your nature 
for the accomplishment of many strange things; that even 
as the chemist manipulating his compounds produces mira- 
cles, and seems to be a very magician juggling with fluids 
and materials, so you, like the chemist, using laws and 
principles and proper agents, can be a marvelous magician 
in the psychological departments, also, while you are living 
here on earth. 

Live, then, so your knowledge can be usefully applied 
for the benefit of your fellows and the cultivation of your 
own natures, and banish superstition and ignorance from 
the world forever; for knowledge is the glorious sunlight 
shining into and dispelling the darkness, and the bats and 
owls so long residing there hie them away to more con- 
genial quarters where the sunlight does not shine so strong. 
May those bats and owls the world has called Magic, 
Witchcraft, and Sorcery flee away to more appropriate 
abodes of shadow in other less-illumined parts of the world 
than that in which you reside; and in place of "witchcraft, 
sorcery, and magic," put the understanding of the psycho- 
logical possibilities of man and being, — which, when applied 
to the needs of life, bless humanity, enlarge the field of 



88 MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT. 

human vision and knowledge, lift man up into communion 
and action with the higher orders of spiritual intelligence, 
who are always willing to help you forward and onward 
in your progress through mortality to the brighter realms 
that lie beyond. 




FIFTH LECTURE. 

THE NATURAL, SPIRITUAL, AND CELESTIAL PLANES OF 
THE SECOND STATE. 



The present topic of consideration is " The Natural, 
Spiritual, and Celestial Planes of the Second State." At 
times it is supposed that the second state of life is so 
strangely different, so altogether miraculous in its charac- 
ter by comparison with the life you are now pursuing, 
that it would seem, if such opinion be accepted as 
correct, that it would be impossible to give any rational 
and intelligible conception of what its nature was like. 
Naturally, the logical mind would argue, if there is this 
great difference between the two states, — and if the fact of 
communion between them be true, — then those who come 
to you from that other state can only make themselves 
understood to your judgment through the agency of sym- 
bols and such approximate statements as would best meet 
the necessities and difficulties that lie in the way. There- 
fore in this case all statements concerning the spiritual life 
would have to be accepted as approximate statements, and 
not statements of literal and actual fact stated in specific 
terms, and the result would be that the whole of the litera- 
ture of Spiritualism dealing with the after-life would be an 
approximate and not an exact literature; for there could be 



90 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

no exact philosophy of the subject, and you would have to 
wake up, perchance, into conscious life in the world beyond, 
with the painful fact dawning upon you that you absolutely 
were not benefited in any particular by all the supposed 
information that had been transmitted to you during your 
residence upon earth. If the spiritual world could only 
give you an approximate understanding of the conditions 
of the future life, it would not render you any very sub- 
stantial service; you would still be enshrouded in doubts 
and difficulties, and the real character of that future state 
would be just as much a sealed book to you after you had 
received communications from these people as it was prior 
to your so doing. Clearly, then, if this is the case, the 
value of the communication will be seriously impaired in 
proportion as this fact is known. 

On the other hand, suppose it to be that you can get 
not only an approximate but a tolerably exact statement 
of the facts of that future life, couched in such manner 
and method that shall make it easily understood and 
accepted by your intelligence and judgment, then the 
communications you receive from that, to you, future world, 
will help to clear away the mists, as well as dispel the 
superstitious opinions that have surrounded that future life 
for so many generations past. In this case communica- 
tions will be advantageous and beneficial to you, instructive 
and illustrative of the real facts and the actual circum- 
stances that there prevail; and coming to you in such a char- 
acter, they will store your mind, unfold your judgment, and 
add to your knowledge of the life beyond, while they will 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 9 1 

largely rob death of those terrors that ignorance and doubt 
have hitherto associated with it. Shall we take the hypo- 
thetical ground, or the ground of exactitude ? Is it impos- 
sible to translate the life beyond into the understanding of 
rational humanity ? Must the information be conveyed in 
the form of symbols and approximations ? Our choice is 
very simple; we aim, as best we can, to be something of 
the rough and hardy pioneer, who, working through the 
tangled undergrowth of the forest, strives to carve a way 
for those who come after, that there may be something of 
a road and more of daylight upon the path than there was 
before; and if we can do this in such practical manner 
as shall make the road we mark out clearly understood by 
you, then we must come to something of exactitude, and 
symbols and approximations may be put upon one side as 
not suited to the task we have in hand. 

We have divided our subject into three separate sections, 
— the Natural, Spiritual, and Celestial planes of the second 
state; and the inference arising from this division is, natur- 
ally, that man passes through certain conditions thus named, 
and in himself exhibits a natural and spiritual and celestial 
character as he proceeds. 

But at the outset we may be encountered with a criti- 
cism and told that to argue that a person passes through a 
natural condition in the spiritual life is to argue something 
that does not seem upon the surface to be supported by 
the facts. We would like to ask one question : How many 
of the teeming multitudes of spirits are really spiritually un- 
folded while living in this world ? If they are not spiritually 



92 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

unfolded while they are living in this world, how can it be 
reasonably supposed, save only by the operation of a mira- 
cle, that they can become spiritually unfolded as the simple 
result of having died ? That death will put such people 
into a spiritual condition rests upon a sandy and insecure 
foundation; yet you will tell us, they become spirits. 
That is true enough. There are a great many human 
people who just possess mortal bodies, in whom humanity 
has not yet begun to put forth its fairest flowers; they are 
mortal rather than human. These people, then, will be 
spirits rather than spiritual, and herein lies the essence of 
the distinction; for may it not be accepted that until the 
divinity of humanity has been elaborated and unfolded, the 
glorious spirituality which is the perfume of humanity can 
scarcely be expected. 

We invite you, first of all, to the natural plane of the 
spiritual life, wherein all the latent elements pertaining to 
your present development germinate, flower, bring forth 
their graces and glory; and wherein all the nobler selfhood 
that you feel within you now unfolds, matures, and beauti- 
fies. Ah! but if we have to take such a step as that, and 
if all the better part of us that we possess now is unfolded 
over there, how many of us shall reach the glory in the 
end, and at what an expense of time, it may be, shall we 
pass through the ultimates of the natural nature of 
us, and tread upon the verge of the spiritual that lies 
beyond? 

True, there is no royal road to progress in the second 
state any more than there is in this; all achievement is the 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 93 

result of individual effort and of personal application. If 
you wish to grow on the second plane of life,then,even as you 
would have to labor upon this plane mentally and morally 
to achieve results, so mentally and morally must you labor 
on that second plane if you would advance and progress. 

Now, when we look at human nature we find that there 
are certain possible characteristics and elements pertaining 
to man's natural nature, as it is called, that apparently are 
in the way, — are clogs upon the wheels of his spiritual devel- 
opment; and people tell you if you wish for grace and 
growth, you must trample underneath all the carnal and 
material elements of your nature. Very frequently we 
have to raise our voice in condemnation of a doctrine so 
sophistical. There is nothing base in man's nature; it is 
only the uses that ignorance and undevelopment have put 
it to. If, then, by ignorance you have descended to 
ignoble service, if by lack of knowledge you have become 
chained, slaves to mastering passions, then those passions 
are not to blame; but your lack of development and lack 
of knowledge rise up in condemnation, and accuse you of 
failure to rightly use the powers that God himself hath 
committed to your keeping. 

When the world grows wise enough, and clearly sees the 
character of God's great government, it will universally 
concede the point we are about to urge, — that in man's 
nature, as well as in the universe itself, the gifts of God are 
good eternally. It is not in crushing and crowding to 
the ground and trampling beneath your feet the gifts of 
God that you are going to attain real progress, but it is in 



94 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

bringing out the principles that are involved therein; in 
applying them intelligently and wisely to the nobler 
purposes and desires of your life, and so bringing out the 
latent elements of good, — the essences and all the sweetness 
and brightness that man's material nature contains. This 
cannot be done to-day, but instinctively the individual 
feels it ought to be done. This instinctive conception 
has lain within the minds of men for ages past, and the 
ascetics and monks and recluses of the world testify to the 
fearful ends men have gone in their attempts to crucify 
the flesh that the spirit might be free. 

Vain efforts were these, — for your natural being needs its 
particular development, its true unfoldment, that these 
latent qualities and powers may be brought to the surface 
and stimulated, even as the sunshine stimulates, and 
warms, and brings to the surface the blade of grass as it 
grows upwards from the soil; and when you can effect this 
result while you are living here, then so much higher will 
you stand in the natural condition in the spiritual world 
when you pass to it; but you need not think that you will 
pass into a realm or sphere beyond the first division we 
have mentioned, for the first stage will receive one and all, 
— for there is not a human being living in the world to-day 
who has attained such superior development and exalted 
unfoldment, that he has exhausted the natural elements of 
personal being pertaining to the sphere of life whereon he 
first commences to be. 

In the spiritual states of life you will find the counter- 
parts of nature, the counterparts of humanity; and these 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 95 

natural counterparts of nature and man are the elements 
of the first degree, so to speak, of spiritual existence. 
They constitute the natural claim whereon your loves, 
your affections, your interests, your professions, all that 
which makes you what you are to-day, come to you, 
remain with you, a part and parcel of your lives, and do 
their work there in your further development, and which 
fit you for the next degree that rises beyond. 

Let us go back for one moment. The natural affec- 
tions of the heart, so called, the desires of the intellect, 
the aspirations of the moral man, the emotions and 
premonitions of the spiritual part of you, — all these are 
working in your lives to-day. You will die, and when 
you enter on the second plane, all these things will be 
with you there working with you still; but they will bind 
you at the same time, for they are links that hold you 
down to the world from whence you came, and bind you 
to the friends you love, to the pursuits that were dear to 
you, to the principles of being you were then related 
to; and they will hold you just so long as you have not 
developed beyond, or, more properly speaking, developed 
up to all the possibilities of life at present active within 
your being. Therefore, your sojourn upon the natural 
plane — the second state — will depend entirely upon the 
character of your affections, the nature of your pursuits; 
and if your strong affections still bind you to the realms 
of nature and the people living there, then will you be as 
dwellers upon the threshold, living actually within the 
confines of the material thought, even on the spiritual 



96 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

side. — remaining unseen, but chained to the conditions of 
earth, sharing and sympathizing with its people in their 
trials and tribulations when they are affectionally related 
to you; but, growing a little beyond this and becoming 
wider in thought and nobler in aspiration, you pass away 
from the world itself, from the actual conditions of 
mortal being, and enter into the real conditions of 
the spiritual life. 

We have so profound a faith in, and so deep a worship 
for, the divinity of man, that at times we feel that if the 
world's humanity were only what that humanity can 
become, the world would need no service from the 
spirit-world to aid it in its upward progress. There is 
so much of good, so much of truth, so much of power 
and beauty, enshrined within this nature of yours, that 
could all these be brought into active exercise, the world's 
people would become angels and gods. Therefore, when 
we see and know them, and mingle with them on that 
brighter plane of natural existence whereon the spirit 
man first stands, we feel and know how divinely great 
this humanity can be. Over there, then, where love is 
the ruling element, mingling in every thought and urging 
all your nature forward, there, on really the lowest round 
of the ladder of spiritual progress, man unfolds every 
latent element of the divine humanity, and realizes fully 
and completely all the elements of human greatness. 

In the main, the majority of communicants, who come 
to hold communication with you, come from the first plane 
of spiritual existence; there they are dwellers upon the 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 97 

threshold; nearer this life, really, than the other, they 
have scarcely passed the portal, and are yet those upon the 
natural plane of spiritual existence, whose interest, sym-' 
pathies, and desires are still associated with the mortal 
world. Occasionally, much more rarely than you think, 
come messengers from the plane beyond, the avant 
couriers of a better dispensation yet to be unfolded; and 
now and again their golden words drop into the seas of mor- 
tal thought, stirring their waters with a quicker life, illumi- 
nating them with a radiant glory that flashes and scintillates 
before the wondering eyes of those keen enough to feel 
the power of the deeper thought and the higher presence. 

But, no matter how long the time may be, the period 
surely comes at last when the latent elements of your 
present careers are all unfolded, and you have grown co- 
equal with the plane of principles upon which you have 
hitherto reposed, and therefore, need a larger flight, must 
have a new condition; for now you begin to feel the need 
of that deeper unfoldment that lies behind the human 
nature, — the cultivation of the spiritual part of you. 

By effort and by sorrow, it may be by pain and misery, 
most potent teachers in the main, you have become chas- 
tened and purified; the discordant and rebellious elements 
have been reduced to order and to harmony; and being 
thus clothed in your right mind at last, wearing at last the 
wedding garments for the spiritual feasting that lies before 
you, the command comes out of your own necessities, 
" Come up higher/' Out of your own necessities, mind, 
— for you can make no advance in the spiritual states of be- 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 



ing until the absolute need of it within yourself compels the 
movement onwards, — you cross the boundaries of nature. 
Of that crossing we cannot deal with now. Suffice it to 
say you cross those boundaries, and find a new life surging 
within your nature, new aspirations developed, new rela- 
tions yearned for; and onward you go, not forsaking or 
forgetting ail that has gone before, but, as it were, gather- 
ing and folding it up like a treasured garment, and putting 
it away, in the recesses of your mind, for use hereafter. 
The life and thought and action of you go forward now 
into the upper portion of the consciousness, and is related 
to spiritual things more deeply; or, in other words, you 
have now arrived at that plane of evolution in your 
spiritual consciousness when you have a higher plane 
of activities, that, by contrast, because of their refine- 
ment, are justly describable as the spiritual plane of your 
being. 

Now this spiritual plane is the complement of the natural 
plane you existed upon before; it is the very essence of 
all that has gone before. Whereas love ruled you before, 
now another power begins to operate as a controlling 
influence upon your judgment. It is the power of spirit- 
ual perception. The spiritual perception operates now, 
and whereas before you had to reason and to argue upon 
all that entered into your knowledge, now the soul sees 
beneath the form, through the phenomenon, to the law and 
the principle that are beneath it. The more remote powers, 
as you consider them now, of your souls, are then brought 
nearer to the surface; and all the virtues and abilities you 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 99 

have dreamed of as being possible hitherto, now become 
practical realities in your every-day experience. 

This spiritual power working within you begins to mani- 
fest itself externally, and you behold yourself upon this 
plane clothed literally in the purity of your own progress; 
whereas your garments upon the lower or natural plane 
of spiritual life were the reflection of your personal thoughts 
and states and conditions, which now have become the 
outward types and forms of your interior life, and develop 
a being clothed in that which makes imposition and 
imposture utterly impossible. Here on this plane of life 
the spirit always is to outward form just what it is in 
inward nature. If this sublime law were only realized on 
earth, what a transformation would be effected in the con- 
ditions of human society, how many people would have to 
change places; those who are up would have to come 
down, those who are judges would become criminals, 
while many a poor prisoner might play the role of judge 
most righteously. Think of it! The time will come when 
what you really are, out of the purity and sweetness of your 
progress, will become actually manifest in the external 
robes that clothe you. 

This spiritual state brings you into closer sympathy with 
the souls of men than you could here obtain upon the 
natural plane previously referred to. Natures intersphere 
each other more completely, and more close communion 
exists between the inhabitants of this plane; and their 
affections and their perceptions, running into closer har- 
mony than hitherto, prevent them making misplaced 



IOO THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

confidences, wrong associations, and injurious affiliations. 
They find, too, that the purposes of being have a deeper 
significance than they ever dreamed before; and realiz- 
ing truly and universally the presence of law and principle 
in the conditions around them and within themselves, they 
are at last overwhelmed with a deeper and more spiritual 
consciousness of the existence and the government of 
God than ever was possible to them before. 

One step further is taken here; and from this plane of 
the spiritual perception they arise to still more exalted 
development, which we will call, for convenience's sake, the 
Celestial state. There a wondrous development is made 
manifest; would that we had the power and the skill to 
bring the glory and the beauty of this third state before 
your understandings; the radiant divinity of it, the spirit 
and power, the spirituality of it, the loveliness of it, are so 
divinely glorious, permeated by such royalty of soul from 
those who live within it, the omnipotence of God's great 
presence, that words fall all too short of being able to give 
you the slightest outline of it. 

Lives there beat in glorious rhythm with the eternal music 
of the Infinite heart itself, and every latent possibility of 
the soul to this point rises to its highest altitude, — manifests 
its most glorious activities and divinest powers; the noble 
messengers of that higher life are indeed fitted to be as 
even gods to you. How can we speak of them, how can 
we tell you of their glory and their beauty ? There is in 
their natures one great principle. If affection and per- 
ception have ruled in the previous cases, now comes the 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. IOI 

godlike power of meditation, or assimilation, whereby the 
principles already gathered, the knowledge already pos- 
sessed, the developments already made manifest, are 
brought within the very consciousness of the soul itself; 
and love and intellect and meditation here crown the 
progress of the soul as it passes upward in the second 
state. Mark well the meaning of these terms. We are 
speaking only of the second state, — not of other states that 
rise beyond it, mark you, more glorious still, but that one 
state of spiritual being that you are at present related to, 
the three divisions of which we have just enumerated. 

When these three separate stages of progress have 
been made, they may now be passed before you in the 
review that substantially says they are the fulfillment of 
the natural man as you know him to-day. They are the 
realities of the spiritual man as you feel him within your- 
selves, they are the blossoming and unfolding of the 
divine man that lies beneath all that is the very essence of 
your natures. 

Here we have, then, observation, perception, and 
reflection, — love, justice, and wisdom manifesting them- 
selves in their proper orders; and as they increase in 
power and come into harmony each with the other, and 
when love is directed by reason, and reason controlled by 
wisdom, then love, justice, and wisdom, — (justice pro- 
moting the action of the intellect), — then, when these three 
are brought into mutual harmony and unity, what a 
perfectly rounded life, by comparison with the lives of 
men to-day, is presented for your consideration ! 

7 



102 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

When this final stage in this second state has been 
reached, behold! a marvelous thing occurs. The mind's 
action, or, more correctly speaking, the action of the 
conscious soul itself, produces a wonderful result; and all 
that has been so far reached becomes absorbed into the 
very nature of you, and becomes the foundation element 
that is the basis of your progress in the next state that 
rises beyond, — the second state you will encounter when 
you pass from this your first. 

The process may be indefinitely repeated. These 
triune developments, their associations in action and their 
final assimilation into one compact element, will go on 
indefinitely; until the soul in its attributes of justice, love, 
and wisdom, and all the elements that make up man's 
nature, affectionally, intellectually, and spiritually, shall 
grow to such gigantic proportions, and possess such divine 
abilities, that all you have ever dreamed of concerning 
even Deity himself shall pale into utter insignificance by 
the side of the reality you shall personally possess. 

May we not, then, pause here, asking you to remember 
that we have only dealt in plain and simple terms and on 
general principles with some of the most important facts 
which will be your experiences when you pass from this 
stage to the world beyond ? We here endeavor to present 
to you, not an approximation, but a literal statement of 
the fact that the three planes of your present natures, the 
natural, intellectual, and spiritual, as we should, perhaps, 
more correctly interpret them, are unfolded upon the first 
general degree of experience after death, and that over 



THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 103 

there the three are represented by the terms natural, 
spiritual, and celestial; and as you thus progress, the prin- 
ciples of your divine humanity, the elements of your 
immortal minds, the qualities of your eternal souls, are 
successively developed and unfolded as you go along the 
second plane of your being, and each unfoldment lays the 
possibility of the one that comes afterwards, and, as it 
grows and develops, it makes you nobler and more divine; 
until at last, having exhausted the possibilities of the 
first plane of your spiritual existence, all these beauties 
and glories in their triune departments become concen- 
trated and embodied in yourself, and behold! a diviner 
humanity than you ever have dreamed of yet is the 
glorious and beautiful result. 

May we meet you, then, not as dwellers upon the 
threshold, — for then it would pain us to know that you had 
not yet reached that plane of spiritual development that 
fitted you to pass behind the outer portals, — but let us 
meet you upon the inner side of the celestial doorway of 
the two worlds, and grasp your hands, and say we are glad 
to see you thus unfolded and thus beautified. May this, 
your plane of natural existence in the spiritual world, 
lead to that of which we have told you. Then shall we 
know that you have lived this life worthily, that you have 
done your best to unfold and exalt your powers and 
natures, and truly fitted yourselves for that natural, spir- 
itual state that is to be your first experience after death. 
And, as you march forward, laboring faithfully, earnestly, 
and zealously, gathering knowledge and increasing in 



104 THE THREE PLANES OF THE SECOND STATE. 

strength and stature, we shall know that you shall 
surely go forward to that sublime and celestial con- 
dition further still. And as you go up there, wise and 
loving, true and thoughtful, souls will be with you at every 
point, to give you aid and help whenever you need it. 

Live then, in this world, under the solemn and serious 
consciousness that you are preparing for the second plane 
of life; and may your deeds and thoughts and growth 
be such that you shall pass through the Gateway into the 
natural life that lies beyond, where, under the blessing of 
the wise and the good, and the Providence of the Eternal 
Power, you shall learn the mighty lessons of nature as you 
can never learn them while you are here; for then you 
shall be able to see beneath the form, beneath the phe- 
nomenon, and learn the law and discover the principle of 
the life and world in which you live. 

If thou wilt so live, then you will earn for yourself free 
admission beyond the threshhold, and hear the glad wel- 
come of the glorious hosts beyond as they speed to meet 
you and warmly clasp your hands in greeting, " Welcome I 
well done, thou good and faithful worker!" 




SIXTH LECTURE. 

THE SOUL WORLD: ITS HELLS, HEAVENS, AND EVOLUTIONS. 



Roll aside the curtains of materiality, penetrate through 
the mists and darkness of ignorance that skirt the passage- 
way between the two worlds, go beyond the doubts and 
mutations of material thought and enter into the radiant 
light of the Soul World that lies beyond; and in that fairer 
country journey with us and to some extent inspect its 
Hells, its Heavens, and comprehend in some degree the 
evolutions that are possible there to that life itself as well 
as to the people who live therein. 

This Soul World is the home of arisen humanity, the 
place where man commences his future of life and 
conscious existence on what is called the spiritual side of 
being; where he commences to unfold the latent capacities of 
his nature to a grander degree than e'er he could while 
living here below, though before this can be done many 
things have to be reckoned with. The evils of the past 
have to be dissipated, superstitions that have accumulated 
about the person have to be purged from off the nature of 
the individual; and to accomplish this something of pain 
and travail must necessarily be endured by all concerned. 
It is the greatest mistake to suppose that merely because 
you enter into the Soul World you are then prepared to 



Io6 THE SOUL WORLD. 



receive all wisdom and manifest all excellence. The 
path of the student is difficult; there is no royal road to 
knowledge; and whatsoever the soul gains and values the 
most is always attained with the greatest effort, and some- 
times by the deepest suffering. The fires of suffering are 
among the potent elements that reveal the jewels of your 
character. So in the Spiritual World it may be, that, in 
passing through periods of trial and purification, the soul 
is gradually moving onwards to brighter and better things, 
and gaining in strength and beauty by reason of its 
suffering. 

When at first you enter that soul life, it may seem to 
you that there is very little difference between that life 
and the world you have just departed from; to all appear- 
ance people will seem much the same to you, the outward 
circumstances of their lives will have strong marks of 
similarity, and the general condition of the world itself 
will be so similar to the general conditions of the world 
from which you have departed, that you might almost 
think that you had fallen asleep in one country on the 
earth, and had awakened in another. Yet this remark- 
able similarity is a wonderfully beneficent providence 
upon the part of the Eternal Wisdom; for if the translation 
from one world to the other involved a sudden and 
complete change and alteration in conditions and 
relationships, why then so sudden a change would result 
in such a shock to the consciousness, that in all probability 
people would be seriously affected by the suddenness of 
the transition and its resultant consequences. Divine 



THE SOUL WORLD. 107 



beneficence thus works to meet the requirements alike of 
the meanest and the greatest of humanity; for when the 
average individual awakes and finds himself surrounded 
with scenes somewhat similar to those with which he has 
been long acquainted in the world he has left behind, the 
shock is lessened and he feels how natural it is that he 
should be living in this new world, and he says, "It seems 
to me I have been here before; I am familiar with the 
scenes and people, and really it is a natural place for me 
to be;" and there is something of truth in this supposition. 
In the hours of sleep, when curtained slumber has 
enclosed the outward mind and sense, the soul is 
sometimes awakened to the glories' of the life beyond and 
has then caught faint glimpses of its beauty, and mingled, 
perchance, with its people. Therefore when he comes to 
the Soul World, indistinctly at first, but gradually 
disclosing itself, he recognizes that the familiarity of the 
world about him arises from the fact that he has seen and 
known it before he actually became a permanent resident 
therein. 

He enters, then, into a world that is in every way suited 
by its nature to his needs. At first the character of the 
change seems but very unimportant, — and hence it is that we 
always say, though sometimes our statement raises some 
dispute, that from the actual fact of death, in the first 
instance, there is but little or no change in the character 
of the individual; but after he has resided in the Soul 
World for some little time he realizes his condition, and 
begins to understand that the old standards of determining' 



Io8 THE SOUL WORLD. 



a man's position do not apply with the same force to his 
new state. Then he begins to realize that the social life — 
shall we call it — of the spiritual world rests upon different 
foundations to those of the social life of the world he has 
departed from; and instinctively he begins to understand 
that he will very soon drop into that place or plane or 
association that his interior spiritual development entitles 
him to occupy. Then the difficulties of the life begin to 
assert themselves. What at first seemed plain sailing and 
easy going; what at first gave him confidence that the 
wicked were not punished, and made him feel he had 
cause for secret congratulation; which made him say, 
" Ah! you see there is no Hell, no Devil, no vengeful 
God to punish, no burning lake of fire, there is nothing to 
fear, as I had been taught;" which causes him for a time 
to give all his remorse to the winds and made him think 
he was going to have a " royal time" over again, — 
presently disappear, and soon some little doubt begins 
to obtrude itself; a little speck floats across the clear 
blue of his present pleasure, and he asks himself, "I 
don't know; this is curious; what does it mean ? " 

Ultimately he realizes that this is what it means: that a 
man is as are his motives; that in the Soul World the 
order of things is, that, if his secret life be soiled and 
defiled and he has been living a lie before the world, then, 
in a very short time, the lie will rise to the surface of his 
spiritual personality, the deceit will become manifest in 
his actual appearance, and those who were so glad to 
see him, and with whom he was so glad to be, will 



THE SOUL WORLD. 109 

begin to look askance at him, and he will realize that 
something has gone wrong. He will then learn the 
lesson, that all association in the spiritual world depends 
upon the law of mutual affinity and fitness; and if he hath 
no affinity with and is unfit to mingle with the better 
sort of those he finds around him, even in the earliest 
portion of his career, then, most surely, does the law of 
repulsion begin to exercise its influence, and he is driven 
out, — driven out from those whom he thought he could 
succeed in blinding as to his real character, — driven out 
from those whom he thought to hoodwink with his pre- 
tended and false claims. Repulsion begins to operate 
between them,, and he is bound to go one way, and that 
way is away from them. Then he begins to understand, 
that, if there is no Hell and no Devil and no angry Deity to 
punish him, there is something that exceeds all these 
three ideas, — a something that is working within, a law of 
repulsion that drives him out, and that entails all the 
penalties that those triune concepts have previously been 
associated with; and he begins to wish presently that a 
Hell and a Devil really did exist, — for when a person 
possessing an undeveloped and abnormally constituted 
mind and character is driven out to his own society, he 
begins to realize the fact that his own society is the 
very worst possible kind of society he can be 
associated with, and would go anywhere, do anything, 
frequently, to escape therefrom. Then begins another 
phase of the problem. He is now getting into Hell ! 
But the effects of this position vary in almost every case. 



THE SOUL WORLD. 



It may result in the development of rage and hatred, of 
fierce and bitter smugglings within his own breast, — turmoil, 
passion, and spite in his mind and thought; he will become 
angry, vengeful, vicious, — and every stage in the descending 
character of these passional developments will be clearly 
and indelibly marked upon his features and in his 
character. One point must be here insisted upon. 
Though these characteristics be expressed in the appear- 
ance and personality of the individual, as a rule they are 
not recognizable to those who live upon the same plane of 
spiritual unfoldment, nor are they recognizable to any 
extent by those who are upon a lower plane of develop- 
ment. But they are perfectly plain and easily to be 
perceived by those who are above them in spiritual develop- 
ment; hence those will see all the peculiarities ex- 
pressed in the outward and personal characteristics of the 
individual, and will see that these external manifestations 
represent the internal conditions; just as among yourselves 
the expert physiognomist can read in the lineaments and 
appearance of the face, to a very large extent, the interior 
character of the individual, so that he makes comparisons 
between such persons and certain animals that possess 
certain characteristics, — that this man looks like a fox and 
has a foxy look, and so forth. Now it does not follow that 
a person has a pig's head, though he has a piggish face. So 
when you are told that certain spirits have the appearance 
of foxes and other animals you may take it that such 
appearances are but symbolical presentations; and the 
spirit who is making the statement to the foregoing effect 



THE SOUL WORLD. Ill 



does so sincerely, no doubt, through not having a clear 
conception of the law in the matter just alluded to. 
Whereas you should understand all that is really implied 
is an indication of the still-continued undevelopment of 
the spirits thus described. 

Now these people we are referring to descend into Hell. 
They may become vengeful, moody, or active; they may 
brood in silence and secrecy, or they may join others like 
themselves; for they carry forward the dispositions they 
possessed while living in this world, and you may find 
them quarreling while amongst themselves as they did 
here below. 

This interpretation of their characters gives you the key- 
note to their personal dispositions. In brief, we may say 
that all those who are in Hell are those souls that are liv- 
ing disorderly lives. A disorderly life is one that is out of 
direct relationship with the external laws of progress and 
development, for by this progress and development you 
insure true unfoldment, and its consequent of happiness. 

Disorder, then, is the key-note of the hellish and of the 
hell world, and this disorder brings us now to the task of 
locating the exact place where it is. It is not in cavernous 
recesses where murky clouds lower, and there are burning 
and roiling waves of fire and flame, away from the light and 
the glory of the day, — deep bosomed in the very bowels of 
nature herself, where demons gnash their teeth and hurl 
their anathemas against the goodness of God. God never 
made such hells as these. He had no necessity to do so; 
for the hells of the spiritual world are within the individuals 



THE SOUL WORLD. 



who are experiencing the results of all the conditions their 
actions can create. A disorderly individual having dis- 
order in himself (using the term in the higher spiritual 
sense) has hell within him. As the old teaching has told 
you very truly that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, 
so also may its opposite be within you; and this being true, 
Hell being within the disorderly life of the disorderly liver, 
that Hell can never be escaped from until those who dwell 
within the sphere of its influence themselves unlock and 
unbolt the bars of their disorderly living and emerge into 
the heavens that lie beyond. Hell, then, is purely a 
personal question, and individual experiences will vary in 
their intensity and character in accordance with the 
circumstances of the particular person concerned. 

Thus, you will understand, that no actual theological Hell 
can be found in the Soul World,, but, instead, that each 
one makes his own Hell, — and making it himself he cannot 
complain against the Almighty Providence for giving him 
too much, for he creates all he experiences; thus every cause 
for complaint of injustice is destroyed. Dealing with the 
matter in this light, we have dealt with it only in its per- 
sonal application. Let us direct your attention now to 
some of the hells that literally exist in actual outward form 
in the Soul World. This seeming contradiction will 
explain itself in a moment or two. You look with us, 
standing by our side, and with astonishment you say, 
"This cannot be Hell. See those towering mountains 
that rear their purple domes into the azure hues beyond. 
See those glowing colors that bathe the whole scene in 



THE SOUL WORLD. 113 

radiant beauty. Behold those magnificent flowers, those 
graceful trees, those streams like silver threads winding 
among the green grasses that wave and roll on their pleas- 
ant banks. See those charming lakes, — surely these are 
not the adjuncts of Hell ? And those noble edifices lift- 
ing their symmetrical domes heavenward; those stately men 
and women, those youths and maidens, those children, — 
they are not devils living in Hell. Why, how can you call 
this Hell ? How can you say these are devils ? There 
must be something wrong here. The picture is too fair 
and lovely in its character. Surely you must be wrong ?" 

No, we are not wrong; all this is, — can be seen by you 
there. But question one of these inhabitants and ask him 
what he sees. You observe the lines of care upon his 
brow; he is sad, subdued, and sullen; there is a terrible 
look lurking in his eye, and latent anger seems to be 
slumbering within. "Oh, this place is a horrible place/' 
he answers. "See those towering walls bleak and dark 
as the eternal granite. Look at these stagnant streams; 
they stink in one's nostrils; the air is full of vile odors; the 
very trees are stripped and bare, there are no blossoms. 
Look at these people; they are hateful and I loathe their 
presence. Oh, if I could only get away from here, and 
be free again, how happy I should be !" 

What is the cause of the obliquity of vision which so 
changes all these transcendent glories we described a 
moment since? The difference is this: You looked 
through eyes unclouded; you looked through your better 
thought and nature; while he sees but through his own 



114 THE SOUL WORLD. 



disordered and demoralized thought and feeling. The 
fairest flowers do not attract his gaze, the verdant hills 
and luxuriant valleys are bare and barren, the trees are 
stark and naked, the musical and crystal streams are but 
turbid waters. When the mind is unattuned to the beauty 
and glory of nature and the harmonies of God, then all of 
being is bare and bleak and dreadful, and your fellow 
creatures seem like foes and vile. People in this condition 
are mentally and spiritually demoralized for the time being, 
out of order with nature, and out of relationship with God; 
or, as you would say, psychologically insane, and see 
existence not as it is, but in the light of their own 
perverted states. Reflection, however, at last penetrates 
through the obscuring mists of their disordered minds. 
Why are they here? If the spiritual life is a natural life, 
if the Soul World is for every one and all, why do they 
come here ? they ask themselves. The answer is that they 
are brought there unknowing to themselves by a power 
superior to their own, and being there are literally held 
there. How so? Some things in the spirit-world are 
done much better than they are done among yourselves, 
and this is one of them. Sometimes the absurd idea of 
the liberty of the individual is carried to too great a length 
among yourselves, and results most disastrously; for it is 
not right that the untrained and the ignorant and the 
vicious should have«the same absolute liberty and freedom 
in the community in which they move as the virtuous and 
the good. This is a problem we suggest to you for your 
own consideration. You have to protect yourselves 



THE SOUL WORLD. 



against them; and that protection carried one step further 
might restrain within well-defined limits, and make you 
realize the fact that those out of relationship with the best 
conditions, and the best form of human society, should be 
legitimately restrained by those wiser and better than them- 
selves. 

In this very Hell we are speaking of this law holds good. 
The wise and philanthropic spirits, the great and the good, 
through all their tributary and subordinate agencies, exer- 
cise control. They bring in, from time to time, men and 
women, youths and maidens, within whom they see the 
possible development, this sprouting to life, so to speak, 
of their several natures, — they are brought within the 
magic circle, shall we say, within the spiritual sphere 
belonging to this locality, — and the general influence of the 
protecting minds makes a wall around this place that these 
feebler wills are utterly incapable of passing through. They 
meet a barrier; what it is they cannot tell, but they are 
conscious of a superior force, the character of which they 
cannot define. 

There they are kept until this sphere of influence gradu- 
ally penetrates their thoughts and infuses itself into their 
minds, stimulates their moral character and quality, and 
develops their latent possibilities into action. Then, as 
the mind becomes orderly, as the soul comes into right 
relationship with the spiritual surroundings that belong to 
it, in the place where they are, behold, they begin to see 
the sunshine; blades of green grass begin to take the place 
of barren soil they have seen so long; the very trees begin 



Il6 THE SOUL WORLD. 



to put forth their leaves again, and the turbid waters seem 
to move with a quicker motion. Little by little the beauty 
of the scene begins to unfold itself. You may take it from 
us, that the more of beauty you can see in your external 
surroundings, the more of beauty is there developed within 
yourself. So as these disorderly minds become adjusted 
and reduced to due relationship, to the conditions with 
which they are surrounded, behold their mental and moral 
natures begin to assert themselves, and their intuitions and 
aspirations begin to make music in their happy souls; little 
by little they begin to realize that the Hell in which they 
lived was a great Sanitarium, a great Health College, where 
under salutary moral influences they have been gradually 
brought out of the Hell that the disorderly conditions of 
their past life created within themselves. 

Thus the hells of the Soul World are educational, 
reformatory, spiritually and morally hygienic, so to speak. 
Those only are brought into them in whom it is seen the 
harmonies and germs of goodness are beginning to sprout; 
and these being thus treated are by degrees brought into 
active relationship with those who instruct and surround 
them, their special adaptations and qualifications are dis- 
covered, and they are in time transferred to other educa- 
tional places, where these qualities can be nourished and 
developed into health and activity. Thus from the lowest 
hells spring forth the angels we shall deal with next. 

Before leaving the hells and their inhabitants there is 
another peculiar point we would like to impress upon you 
which concerns the souls living therein, for in many cases 



THE SOUL WORLD. 117 

they appear to grow worse after they have passed into the 
spiritual world. You must remember that there is in 
every one of you a certain amount of disorder, disease of 
body, obliquity of mind, and perversion of moral con- 
sciousness, — all of which are potent elements of evil and 
wrong-doing. If you cannot exhaust the germs of these 
things while you are living in this world, if they are not 
expelled by the superior moral faculties and intellectual 
and spiritual development while here on earth, then will 
they cling to your mental sphere and effect their out-work- 
ing when you get into the spiritual world. Do not, 
though, for one instant construe the-*argument that every 
man has so much wickedness, therefore he has got to be 
wicked to get rid of it, and thereby excuse the wicked- 
ness of yourself or your neighbor. Nothing of the sort is 
here involved. There is this possible misdirection in you 
all, but its true and legitimate expulsion is through develop- 
ing more and more of the spiritual attributes, which is your 
duty here. If you do not get rid of this possible element 
of degradation while here, then it will have to exhaust 
itself in the spiritual world; and apparently it will result 
in your becoming much worse after death than before. 
The end comes at last; the period of reaction asserts 
itself. At such times some gentle brother, from one of 
the great benevolent Brotherhoods who have charge of 
these hells we have just mentioned, is able to take you, 
unconsciously to yourself, and place you in one of the 
Sanitariums we have portrayed, and in the end effect your 
purification. 



Il8 THE SOUL WORLD. 



But come with us to fairer scenes, if possible; though 
surely we may say this scene is fair enough, — for wherever 
the doing of good to your fellows is involved, there shall 
we find beauty and sweetness, and something akin to the 
beneficence and love of God himself is there. 

We come, then, to what, for convenience' sake, we will 
call the fairer scenes of the Soul World, where the souls 
of men are supposed to be basking in everlasting felicity, 
where eternal sunshine reigns supreme, where happiness, 
pleasure, and joy are perpetual. " Yes," you will say, 
"one would like to find that such things were true, 
one would very like to discover such things after 
death; if we could only enter there and enjoy all the 
beatitudes of such a condition, how happy should we be 
for the change!" At first you will not find such things; 
the everlasting and eternal sunshine is a dream that we 
do not think you will realize for ages yet to come; the 
alternations of joy and sorrow, of shade and sunshine, of 
hope and fear, of success and failure, are necessities to 
the immortal soul for ages yet to be, — and in these heavens 
there will be no one uninterrupted and glowing day, no un- 
ceasing tide of joy, no unvarying sunshine; the soul has to 
grow, man has to advance step by step and gain exper- 
ience; experience brings him knowledge. But while he 
is gathering knowledge through experience, failures and 
disasters are sure to assail his progress from time to 
time. 

Therefore the heavens will not be altogether devoid of 
their cares and anxieties, shall we call them, not altogether 



THE SOUL WORLD. 119 

devoid of their aspects of gloom; and yet because of the 
germs of sweetness and order and beauty belonging to 
them, it shall make these as fleeting shadows.passing across 
the path of human life, — only as a fitful cloud briefly shut- 
ting out the golden sunlight. 

"What shall we find in those heavens?" What do we 
mean by Heaven ? As Hell is within, so also is Heaven. 
It is no more a locality than Hell. The sense of order, 
peace, and righteousness, consequent upon well doing, 
within the breast, makes the place a Heaven; and in the 
Societies, Fraternities, Families, and Associations of the 
Soul World the pure soul lives in sweetest bonds of 
unity. There in that happy estate you shall find all that 
the souls of men desire, — all their hopes realized, all their 
affections ministered to, all their aspirations unfolded to 
the point that they have reached. 

What shall be the evolutions that arise from the heavens 
and the hells we have just referred to? — for one might truly 
say that the heavens are the evolution of the hells; indeed, 
when we take life right through, in every case do we find 
that each ascending stage is an evolution from the stage 
that preceded it. What then is beyond these heavens ? 
When the minds and souls of men grow strong enough 
they plume themselves for flight to higher regions, and all 
the conditions of disorder and inharmony disappear from 
the realms belonging to their existence on the planes 
described; all shall then be order, harmony, and peace, — 
and on the particular plane of spiritual existence we have 
been detailing, there shall be embodied within yourselves 



THE SOUL WORLD. 



all the latent possibilities that will then have become 
actualities. Then, the essential principles being thus 
embodied within the consciousness of those who live upon 
that plane of life, behold the old heavens shall be rolled 
away as a scroll, so to speak, and those who have lived 
therein go to higher states still; where still nobler elements 
of spiritual life shall be evolved, — where what you have 
reasoned upon, what you have thought upon, and experi- 
mented upon, in preceding stages, shall then become 
actual and positive knowledge that shall be as plain and 
clear to you as the simplest of simple things among your- 
selves to-day. Then shall the soul unfold new powers, 
new qualities and orders of action, — new and stronger 
associations shall arise, and over all shall brood the con- 
sciousness that there is a mightier than thou, a deeper 
than that which hath yet been revealed or done, a grander 
than even you have yet dreamed of; and your search for 
the mystic words of wisdom, your desire to find the 
deeper fountain yet undiscovered, shall bubble up with 
renewed force and power within your souls whenever you 
but do anql dare for the greater truths as you did and 
dared for the radiance and glory of that Heaven you have 
now attained. Then shall all feuds be stayed, all hatreds 
of the mind be quenched, all the discords of affection be 
stilled, all the differences and dissensions that ever keep 
the human lives and loves apart be banished forever; 
and the great family of humanity shall become one 
spiritual brotherhood of happy and united souls in the 
more real Soul World that lies far, far beyond the conditions 



THE SOUL WORLD. 121 

of the Soul World that we have just been dealing with. 
Thus, briefly, we have endeavored to place before you 
the quality and character of the hells and the heavens, 
and the evolution of possible greatness and grandeur in 
yourselves, in the conditions of being that will meet you 
after you master the first conditions of the Soul World 
into which you enter immediately following your depart- 
ure from physical existence here. 

Thus discord and harmony, as you will have learned, 
are the key-notes of the hells and heavens of spiritual 
existence; and the lesson we wish to enforce clearly upon 
you is, that the Divine Providence has not made one 
condition or state bleak and barren and wretched and 
miserable for those who are unhappy and in darkness and 
misery, and another condition of divine beauty and glory for 
those who are morally and spiritually progressed; but that 
the Soul World, like the Natural World, is a bright and 
beautiful world in every department, and that you 
see and interpret its character through the medium 
of the discord or harmony that resides within your 
own breast and is manifested in your own mind. Take 
this lesson to your heart, and then you will realize that as 
is your own character and development, so will be your 
interpretation of the condition of existence in which you 
happen to be situated. 

Now, let us withdraw you from this fair world to the 
realms of mortal being again, leaving its glory and its 
beauty as a memory bright and pleasant to linger within 
your thoughts, — coming down from these Brotherhoods, 



122 THE SOUL WORLD. 



these Families and Fraternities, from these noble and 
philanthropic hearts, so that you may again be practical 
dwellers in mortal life; and as the curtains roll behind 
you, as you retire from the glory that lies behind them 
and again tread the terrestrial fields, oh! remember but a 
thin veil hangs between yourselves and that world from 
which in mind you have now returned; that, if you wish 
to enter into the calmer heavens over there, see that 
heavenly conditions are unfolded within your lives and 
breasts while here on earth. Remember also that surely 
you shall find an entrance into the hells that lie beyond, 
as a consequence of the discords in your natures now. 
Strive, then, to reduce all discords to harmony, — purify 
yourselves from all unclean thoughts, desires, and deeds, — 
lift your natures up to the highest plane of personal 
application, morally and spiritually; live so purely before 
the world that, like the brightest silver, if but a breath 
rests upon it, it vanishes ere the stain can fairly be said to 
have been seen. Keep your hearts so purged, your souls 
so pure and sweet, that no stain can ever rest upon them; 
and when you die, when you pass through the mystic 
portals into the Soul World beyond, then shall you be 
fitted to enter into some of its heavenly associations by 
having a heavenly condition already developed within 
yourselves, — and that shall measurably assist you to 
come under the influence of that greater and grander 
evolution that we have suggested as possible for the 
inhabitants of the Soul World beyond. 



SEVENTH LECTURE. 

LIFE, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEATH IN SPIRIT-LAND. 



When you remember that life for the inhabitants of the 
spirit-land means an eternity of life, and that the argu- 
ment is an unending existence, you may naturally inquire, 
Is it possible that the bodies of the people living in the 
immortal world shall continue to maintain their structure 
and their functions for such an enormous duration? 
There is, of course, to the majority of people living on 
the mortal plane, the idea of friction, waste, and con- 
sequent decay, as being facts they are familiar with in as- 
sociation with material bodies, — and it will be urged that if 
there are functions and activities associated with the spir- 
itual bodies there must necessarily be friction, waste, and 
decay in connection with those bodies; and while people 
may, in a certain sense, be able to grasp the conception 
of the eternal duration of those bodies, they certainly are 
unable, in the great majority of cases, to dispense with 
the supposition of friction, waste, and decay, as previously 
stated. That these are factors in all organic structures on 
the mortal plane is self-evident. Have they to be con- 
sidered in regard to the organic structures of the spiritual 
plane ? and if so, what are the means whereby that waste 
is repaired, and that friction reduced to the lowest mini- 



124 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

mum ? These are deep questions, and asked in vain 
of the usual and accepted authorities upon such subjects. 

Now the development of the spiritual personality in the 
spirit-life is also another important question; for if there 
be a development there must either be an expansion of 
existing materials or an aggregation thereto, — ^for the de- 
velopment must either proceed from within or be the con- 
sequence of additions from without. It matters little 
whether it be development of soul or mind or body, the 
law must hold good in either case, — and if one case, in all 
cases; and the solution will have to be sought as to where 
is the source of the means of the possible development of 
the individual inhabitant of the spiritual world. 

We will also, as another interesting speculation, ask 
the question, If the duration of the personal existence in the 
spiritual world is eternal, and the development of the 
individual is eternal also, may there not come a time when 
the personality of the individual will have grown so 
enormous in proportions as to be practically unwieldly ? 
When we introduce the speculation we have to deal 
with, the possibility of death in the spiritual world, a wave 
of fear and sadness may, as it were, roll over your spirits, — 
a chilling blast may seem to sweep across the eager buds 
of your aspiring natures; and you may say, if we have to 
face the grim monster again after passing through mortal 
death, then the exchange has advantaged us but little! 
Yet having realized that death in your mortal conditions is 
only a stepping-stone to a larger life, and having gained 
the confidence of victory in one case, the assurance of 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 1 25 

victory in all cases where a like experience is to be 
encountered may almost be counted upon as certain. If 
existence in the higher life leads you to higher powers and 
the exercise of greater ability, it follows that every seeming 
obstacle in your path will grow less powerful the more 
exalted you become yourselves. 

Life in the spirit-land means several things as associated 
with the individual. It means spiritual life, mental life, 
personal life; for you must bear in mind that the inhabi- 
tants of the spiritual world are just as much beings, 
persons, men and women, as are yourselves; that they 
are endowed with the machinery for the expression of 
intelligence, just the same as humanity; that they, any 
more than yourselves, have not yet reached a plane where 
they are able to express intelligence apart from organiza- 
tion. Now this is a most important fact to be considered. 
You must bear in mind that in all cases the exhibition of 
force is dependent upon an agency for a manifestation. 
It matters not what the ultimate expression may be, the 
agency is the thing contended for; and as intelligence, as 
a force in man's personal nature, is dependent upon an 
agency for its expression, you must have in spirit-land, as 
here, an organization, — and this organization is the agency 
for the expression of your intelligence, and the manifesta- 
tions of the inherent powers of your immortal entity. 
Then the existence of this organization, the reparation 
ol its waste, the reduction of the results of its friction to 
its lowest possible minimum, are questions fairly and 
legitimately before us for consideration. 



126 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

Here it follows that the spirit-body being upon a higher 
plane than the mortal body, its [functional operations will 
involve another set of laws, and those laws will be upon 
the higher plane, as is the body they are associated with; 
and whereas there are certain processes that are absolutely 
necessary in the material life, their counterparts may be 
accomplished by other methods and higher laws than those 
by which they are accomplished while you are living here on 
earth. The processes of physical existence may be thus 
summarized: — 

You consume .food; the heat and chemical action in 
the various organs of digestion reduce the food to its 
component elements, which elements are distributed to 
the various portions of the system. Through the various 
activities there is a waste of tissue, and this expenditure is 
repaired by the liberation of the essential elements or 
forces of the foods or substances which, being absorbed 
into the human organism, sustain and repair it. There- 
fore, ultimately, it is the forces of nature that sustain the 
human organism; and the process whereby you reach 
these forces is the process of destructive assimilation, as 
expressed in the digestion of human food. This is appar- 
ently a roundabout process, you will say. It is particu- 
larly fit and proper for the plane of life upon which it 
operates, and it would be improper and inadequate and 
utterly unfit if applied to beings living upon a higher 
plane than that you at present occupy. But if the question 
of assimilated forces on the lower plane has to receive 
attention, why should not also be considered the assimila- 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 1 27 

tion of forces upon the higher plane ? If the elaboration 
and absorption of forces is the means whereby reparation 
is accomplished here, may it not also be that upon the 
higher plane a similar process is also involved ? and if so, 
shall it not be further accepted that the means whereby 
this result is obtained upon the higher plane shall be a 
higher method, as compared with the method you depend 
upon in this world? If we accept the position that the 
organization of the spirit-body and its processes are to a 
certain extent a duplicate of the material organization, 
then the question becomes a point of interest as to what 
use the duplicates of the great organs of the interior of the 
system subserve, what are their counterparts in the 
spiritual personality, and how are their functions accom- 
plished there. If we take the duplication of the 
organism as a spiritual fact, and that it contains within 
itself the spiritual counterparts of most of the organs you 
are familiar with in the human physiology, then we have to 
assure you that that internal organism becomes, as it were, 
a species of battery, a collection of cells or sacs, — whereby 
in the peculiar structure and formation of the spirit- 
body the essential forces of the spiritual realm are 
extracted, and are sent on their mission for absorption 
into, and the consequent maintenance of, ethereal organi- 
zations that constitute your bodies there; that instead 
of the grosser fluids of the material organization, the 
etherealized electricities and magnetisms of the spiritual 
world are the circulating mediums in the spirit organi- 
zation. 



128 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

Now the operations of the spiritual physiology, shall we 
call it, to use a term to convey the idea clearly to you, 
necessarily involve the expenditure of force, just the same as 
the operations of your earthly body, when, having exhausted 
its forces in the accomplishment of any particular object, 
they have to be recruited and restored by means of the forces 
elaborated and distilled by the digestive and assimilative 
agencies of the system from the food consumed; so in the 
spirit body, corresponding processes are necessary to distill 
the elements and forces that are needed to establish and 
maintain health and action in the spirit beings. Now this 
necessarily demands not only the expenditure of force, but 
may possibly involve the expenditure of substance as well, 
and this substance has to be again supplied; for the struc- 
ture has to be continually built up and sustained, as well 
as its depleted forces restored, — which, when the needful 
processes are duly fulfilled, is satisfactorily accomplished 
and the structure sustained. 

Therefore the life of the individual in the spirit -land is 
sustained by these electrical and magnetic processes and 
distillations in a manner somewhat analogous to, though not 
exactly the same as, the means depended upon on the 
grosser plane. We might, in a word, sum the argument 
up by saying, that the processes of material existence are 
the prophecy, dim, faint, and indistinct, of the higher laws 
and methods whereby life is sustained in the spirit-land. 

A little experiment, which will at once assure you of the 
fact that it is possible to sustain life by principle of absorp- 
tion, consists in the immersion of a portion of the physical 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 129 

body in water; the system will absorb the water, — a certain 
action called endosmose, which the scientific mind is 
familiar with, will enable the structure to absorb the water, 
enabling the person to thus obtain whatever nourishment 
the system needs. You may try the experiment for your- 
self; if you are suffering from excessive thirst and heat, 
place your hand underneath the water faucet, and gradually 
a cool influence will spread through the entire body as the 
water flows over your hand. The coolness and absorbed 
moisture will gradually spread throughout the entire system, 
restoring the lacking fluid that causes you to experience 
the thirst. Now this is a very simple fact, but it contains a 
deep prophecy of the law of absorption as one of the 
means of subsistence in the spiritual life. Magnetically or 
psychologically the same law is operating. You absorb 
one another's influences, you absorb each other's affections 
and hatreds, each other's health and disease. Constantly 
and continually you are subject to this law of absorption; 
and when you see that this law is but the prophecy of its 
operation upon a higher plane and under better circum- 
stances, you can understand that our argument is not 
strange or far-fetched. 

Here, then, we have found something of the means of 
life for the people living in the spiritual world, and we 
find that life is active and operant there, as it is among 
yourselves, and the men and women there have a reality 
pertaining to their natures that has not often been sup- 
posed, — that ignorance, fanaticism, and superstition unfor- 
tunately have hitherto entirely denied; that the problem of 



130 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

subsistence of life in the spiritual world has been alto- 
gether ignored in the spiritual training the world has re- 
ceived in former times; and that subsistence there follows 
at first certain general lines of similarity with this life, 
but that ultimately the law of subsistence by absorption is 
the rule in the higher spiritual states. 

Coming to the matter of Development in the spiritual 
world we have to consider two questions: development 
as applied to the personality of the individual, and devel- 
opment as applied to his individuality and consciousness, 
if we may be permitted to use familiar terms as applied to 
the outer and inner nature of the people of the spirit-life. 

The objective, or, more correctly, the organic, part of 
the. spirit has an eternal persistence of duration; if the 
form is eternal, and the development of it is eternal, you 
might ask if the individual would not at last grotf so un- 
wieldly in proportion as to be utterly incapable of locomo- 
tion. This is not true. So far as we have been able to 
trace the law, it is impossible for the personal development 
of the individual to ever attain such enormous proportions 
as to utterly deprive him of the power of using his body 
in any sense whatever, — the reason of which we will show 
you presently. 

Now the mental and spiritual development of the indi- 
vidual runs on indefinitely, but you must remember that 
mental growth and spiritual growth in all cases depend 
upon self-effort; there is no growth without work, that is 
to be distinctly borne in mind. You can starve your mind 
and soul just as truly as you may your body; and if you will 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 131 

not pluck from the trees of truth in the vales of wisdom, 
you certainly will not grow in mind, any more than you 
would grow in stature if you were to refuse to eat the neces- 
sary articles of subsistence in the material life. In the 
spiritual life you must work for mental growth and spirit- 
ual development, and unless you do so work you will not 
gain either. This work must be intelligent work; for as 
you starve your bodies by eating improper food, so, 
mentally, you may starve your mind by improperly feeding 
it, and to such an extent that mental digestion is arrested, — 
and then the mind will be surely starved, as would the body 
under similar circumstances. Your work must be within 
the limitation of your present abilities; and as you con- 
sume your ability, so to speak, in an intelligent effort, thus 
you build up your mental characters and nature. Fill up 
and grow sturdy in your minds, and your increase of 
strength and knowledge will enable you to deal with still 
greater problems, — the mastering of which will give you 
strength and stature in mind as a consequence of knowl- 
edge gained. 

Spiritual unfoldment is apt to be considered as the great 
thing all should strive for. There is a sort of idea among 
many people, a loose and indistinct idea it seems to us, 
that spiritual development is the only development worth 
having. In the name of common sense what do you mean 
by spiritual development ? Do not all the forces of mind, 
affection, and every intellectual quality and character of 
your nature, all the forces and expressions of your con- 
scious life, proceed from your immortal entity ? 



132 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

Some people seem to think that spirituality is a sort of 
golden cake that they may take a bite out of and be bene- 
fited, the same as the eating of manna in the olden 
times. Nothing of the sort. The spirituality of the indi- 
vidual does not depend upon the cultivation of one 
special department, but upon the entire rounding out of 
the whole nature, mentally, morally, and spiritually; and 
when this development of character is strong, the indi- 
vidual, self-poised and self-centered, can rise triumphant 
over the ills of time, over the evils of the flesh, over the 
perplexities of daily life, — ride the storms of hatred in safety 
and security, and emerge at last into the clear waters of a 
conscious self-poised existence, fearing no sorrow and 
dreading no future; then there is a spiritual development 
worthy of the name, made up of the personal, mental, moral, 
and conscious development of the individual who is con- 
cerned. But such lives have neither time nor inclination 
to mourn, cry, or yearn for an especial spiritual develop- 
ment; for they feel the spirituality of their own souls radi- 
ating to every department of their being, and expressed in 
every thought and action of their lives. 

This is the spiritual development we would suggest to 
you as being realized in the spirit-life. Over there it is 
not the question of the development of one especial part 
of a person's nature to make them prominent or noticeable, 
or to give them some especial grace and quality. He is 
considered the most spiritual who has the most of spirit- 
uality in the entirety of his life, character, thought, and 
action. Hence, then, in the spirit-land, the question of 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 1 33 

development may be followed upon any particular plane 
that you please. One person may make an especial point 
of development in a certain direction, another person's 
inclination running in some other channel may cause him 
to pursue development in some opposite direction; yet you 
could not accuse either of being unspiritual,for they are pur- 
suing whatever way, that, to their necessities and conscious- 
ness, seems the correct and proper way for them to pursue; 
and for them it is, because it seems so to them. When 
you can convince them that it is not the proper way and 
cause their thoughts to flow into other channels, then the 
new way will be the proper one for them. 

The development in the spiritual world may be intellec- 
tual, moral, or spiritual; it may be aesthetic, artistic, 
poetic, arTectional; it may be the hundred and one differ- 
ent things by which the mind and soul and consciousness 
round out in so many departments, in the many different 
methods of progress and unfoldment; but whatever way the 
line of progress may be pursued, the development comes as 
the natural consequence of the result of intelligent labor 
wisely directed. 

What is the consequence of this development ? This 
development of power supposes the development 
of the means for the utilization of power. The 
development of faculties, and the development of func- 
tions, must proceed side by side with development of 
organic means of expression. Now, in the spirit-life, the 
means of expression that are depended upon, in the earlier 
stages at least, are the means which are the subjective 
9 



134 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

means to you in this world; and the subjective powers of 
your present nature become the objective features of 
expression in your early conditions in the spirit-state. 
The result of this is, that there is not only an acquisition 
of power immediately upon entering the spiritual world, 
but there is a further development of that power as a 
consequence of life and action on that plane; remembering 
now that for every being there is a development of ability, 
there must be a development of means through which that 
ability is acquired and expressed, — that is, the organic 
means by which knowledge is gained implies another set of 
means whereby knowledge, after it is gained, can be put 
into practical operation. The spiritual brain, the spirit- 
ual sensibilities, the spiritual activities, the spiritual 
agencies, or senses shall we call them, that you utilize in 
the spiritual world for the acquisition of knowledge, have 
still a subjective side, — which is affected by the knowledge 
when gained, and enables it to be expressed after you 
have mastered it and made it part and parcel of your 
own experiences. 

But why is it impossible that the development and life 
of the individual can never become so enormous as to 
become unwieldly, as we have suggested ? 

This brings us to the question we have to deal with 
next, — death in the spirit-land. If there is a process of 
expansion in the personality, the consciousness, and men- 
tality of the spirit, there is a process of precipitation and 
concentration also. You continually grow in knowledge, 
your mind expands, and it contains so many things that 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. I35 

you begin to feel the necessity of setting your mental house 
in order. What illustration can we give you ? Here is a 
-merchant: business pours in upon him thick and fast, he 
has a large correspondence from all quarters of the globe; 
there he sits at his desk, around him are pigeon-holes 
without number, where in proper order he puts his various 
correspondence, letters, and bills, and notices that come 
before him. But his papers have accumulated to such an 
extent that he says, " Dear me, I am getting overwhelmed 
with papers and documents, — what shall I do with them?" 
Then he thinks he will have them all gone through; and 
those that are useless and out of date he will destroy, 
and those that are of some service he will enter on the 
pages of a book conveniently arranged for that purpose. 
Then the process of precipitation and concentration begins; 
a portion of the papers are noted by a few lines in the 
book, and either filed away or perchance destroyed. The 
more important are carefully reduced to small bundles and 
stored away in the cellar, in case there may be occasion to 
refer to them in the future. By these methods many a 
pigeon-hole is cleared entirely, and the contents of others 
are materially reduced; so that the merchant says at the 
end of the clearing up, ' ' Now I have got all of the impor- 
tant matters in this book properly indexed, where I can 
make ready reference to bygone transactions, and have 
plenty of room for the new correspondence." He has con- 
centrated and precipitated the experiences of the past year, 
he has reduced them to small dimensions; and his old 
correspondence not being allowed to remain in an unwieldy 



I36 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

condition, he now can dispose of his new correspondence 
with ease, and handle it without difficulty. 

In the spiritual world you will ultimately find yourself in 
a condition similar to that of the merchant. Your mind 
will be stored with memorandums of investigation of a 
thousand different things, and you will begin to realize 
that you are becoming overburdened. Then you will pass 
your mental treasures in review,and finding certain things not 
altogether necessary for your well-being, they may well be put 
away. And little by little you gradually go through your 
whole account of mental treasures, and reduce them to the 
smallest possible compass; and the mind's actions being 
thus reduced and concentrated, the volume of preceding 
experiences that are in the memory will be reduced to the 
narrowest compass, — and you will be thus able to start again 
with more room in the memory, more room in the drawers 
of your mind, ready for larger things hereafter. 

But this process cannot be fully accomplished without a 
certain peculiar condition, and here we shall have to 
digress a moment or two to introduce a point of spiritual 
philosophy that we think is well worthy of your considera- 
tion. The three-fold operations of the mind may be 
described as perception, observation, and reflection. This 
leads to the process of assimilation as the result of the 
three processes referred to; and the mind, assimilating the 
products obtained by one or all of these three processes, 
unites in a concrete whole the materials thus acquired. 
Now the three planes of mental and spiritual action are 
love, justice, and wisdom, corresponding to the physical or 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 1 37 

natural, the mental, and spiritual natures of the individual. 
Now, when you are living in this world, you are living alto- 
gether upon the physical plane of existence; and when you 
die here, the essence of all the experiences you have passed 
through are concentrated in your memory at the time of 
your passage from one world to the other. Also, when you 
pass from one plane to the other of spiritual existence, a 
process somewhat similar and analogous to that passed 
through upon passing from this stage to the next beyond 
it has to be encountered; and the result is a concentration 
of all the experiences and results upon that spiritual plane, 
so that you consolidate the experiences of that plane of 
being, and they become the foundation of your mental 
being when you arrive on the plane above. 

How, then, do you die in the spiritual world? Have 
you to be sick? Oh, no! You will please bear in mind 
that in this matter we are speaking of your translation 
from one of the grand planes of spirit life to another, — not 
of a mere change of sphere, society, or association, but of 
an absolute removal from one condition of spiritual exist- 
ence to another that lies beyond it. You are not sick, — 
there is no disease, no illness; but yet you are about 
to be translated from one condition of life to another be- 
yond it. Are you fitted for it ? Yes, you have been 
growing towards it; your spiritual perceptions have been 
quickened, and you see clearly there is a higher realm be- 
yond you than the one you are at present residing in, and 
you realize it is a state that you have to enter. How can 
you gain admission? There comes a time when that 



138 LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 

plane of spiritual life that you are now on has been ex- 
hausted, — an indefinite age may pass before such a result is 
attained, but come that time surely will and does, — and 
then there is this process of assimilation we have pre- 
viously referred to. Thoughts, as it were, concentrate; you 
feel a nameless but sweet and beautiful rest stealing over 
you; you feel that you are going to vastate the cruder ele- 
ments of the condition you are then in. A beautiful 
sleep will fall upon you, and while this sleep is on you, 
behold ! these elements will drop from you, as the dew may 
fall from the tree. You awake presently, and in that 
waking find that you have made the voyage from the state 
you were then in to the wonderful clime you now have 
reached. No pain, no sorrow, — scarcely a change in 
form even; but certain grosser spiritual elements, that 
were fit and proper to the condition before, have been 
left behind. 

And when, with a greater activity of the powers of your 
immortal nature, you stand on the higher plane, the 
whole of your preceding life is there enshrined within 
your mental nature, spread out befoie your mind's eye, 
whensoe'er you choose to view them; and profiting by 
what you have obtained before, realizing it is but the 
stepping-stone to what now lies before you, you will then 
start upon the new career that there awaits you. This 
may involve a separation of greater or less duration from 
those whom you have been previously associated with. If 
you have attained a higher plane of spiritual existence, you 
will have to wait until your friends have reached the same 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 1 39 

development ere they can stand side by side with you in 
the same condition of spiritual unfoldment. 

Here we have, then, in brief review, passed before you 
the questions of Life and Development and Death in spirit- 
land. Let us look at the matter of death, however, from 
another point of view, — which does not mean translation 
from one stage to another in the meaning in which we 
have just placed it before you. There are many who have 
to die from old prejudices, from old affections and old 
loves; many who have to die morally and mentally ere 
they can be resurrected from the crudities and imperfec- 
tions and errors and mistakes that have accumulated 
while here below. This accumulation will have to be vas- 
tated, thrown off, — the old will have to die, and the new 
man come to life. Many and many such a death have 
we witnessed in the spiritual world: you say here it is re- 
pentance; we see it over and over again a thousand differ- 
ent times. 

Die to the old and live to the new; die to the false and 
live to the true; and by so ' ' dying " and so " coming to life " 
you can attain a freedom and beauty, and an impetus of 
development, that cannot come to you by any other means. 
There are hatreds that will have to die before love can 
bloom; there is ignorance that must die ere wisdom can 
take its place; there is the calloused cold-heartedness that 
must die ere the warm, rich life of love can animate the 
soul itself; there are all these influences and associations 
to die from ere the jewels of character and the beauties of 
the inner life can fill your mind. 



140 



LIFE, ETC., IN SPIRIT-LAND. 



In thus placing before you Life, Development, and 
Death in spirit-land, we trust you will agree that we have 
given you some clear and precise information upon the 
various topics considered. Our object and desire has 
been to do this, so that you may learn in some degree 
what are the actual facts of man's post-mortem life and 
character. 




flPPE]SDI£. 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 



REMARKS BY THE CONTROL. 

We have now reached that stage in our labors with you. 
the present Class, at which we shall be enabled to consider 
any questions you may desire to propound to us, and 
help you to remove any difficulties or doubts that may 
linger in your minds concerning any of the matters we 
have touched upon during this course of lessons. Our 
desire is to assist you to the very best of our ability in 
any direction that you may require aid. Of course we 
do not claim that we have entirely exhausted the various 
subjects we have dealt with ; in many cases we have only 
been able to be suggestive, and point, rather, to the 
much more that remained behind than to ask you to 
accept as complete the little that we have been able to 
present. You understand us well enough by this time to 
know that we have no desire to dogmatize, or to demand 
that you accept what we say simply because we say it. 
In the agitation of thought is the beginning of wisdom; 
in mutual counsel there lies safety; and in the free, 
frank, and honest discussion of all difficulties there lies 
the only salvation from ignorance and superstition. 



142 APPENDIX. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 

Q. What is the distinction between the will of the individ- 
ual and the mind ? 

A. The will is the executive officer of the mind 
under the direct control of the consciousness. The 
mind is largely memorative and cognitive, — is engaged in 
the acquisition of external facts. The inner side of the 
mind is, of course, related to the consciousness; and the 
exhibition of energy from the essential soul, the conscious 
me, as represented in what is called the will, intelli- 
gently directs the mental machinery for the accomplish- 
ment of specific ends and purposes. The distinction 
between the will and the mind is so exceedingly subtle that 
it is very difficult to express it in precise and definite terms, 
so that it may be easily apprehended. But what we have 
said, we think, may help you to understand the lines of 
distinction between them. The will is the executive 
officer of the consciousness working through the mind. 

Q. In higher realms do not family ties become swallowed 
up in a great and universal love for all? 

A. In the more advanced realms of spiritual exist- 
ence, such is the case; and the love of the family associa- 
tion as a unit, the parental, selfish enjoyment, is expanded 
to a larger and broader life and character. This much 
should be borne in mind: that love which is purely local 
and domestic has within itself the germ, the essential 
element, of an enduring relation; and that enduring relation 
blossoms,expands,and beautifies, and is not destroyed, — and 



APPENDIX. 143 



this is embodied and included within the boundaries of 
the larger love for the human race at large. Though the 
larger then contains the lesser, the lesser is not destroyed 
altogether in its character by its expansion and association 
with the larger. Those who are truly related spiritually, 
those whose lives are entwined together by interior powers 
and bonds, remain in such relationship, in such unity and 
such affection indefinitely; but their ideas broaden out, 
their perception increases in various directions, and their 
operations extend over a wider area. So long as love is a 
personal, individual, and local question, you have only 
reaped one-half of its benefits; but when it brings you out 
into a wider sphere of operation, and you begin to have a 
love for humanity, the individual is then elevated into a 
broader sphere of life and progress. 

Q. Are there not those in celestial spheres who have no 
anxiety , fear ,or doubt, and who know the exact result 
of any work they undertake ? 

A. On the plane of their own development it is per- 
fectly correct to say that they are without fear or doubt as 
to the result of any work they undertake; because they 
have within themselves, within their mental and personal 
view and understanding, the laws and principles of the 
results that are to be accomplished. But when they aim 
to accomplish something which is beyond them, which leads 
them into unfamiliar grounds, then, like yourselves, the 
element of uncertainty enters into their calculations, and 
they may require assistance and advice from others. In 



144 APPENDIX. 



the accomplishment of labor upon planes of operation 
beneath them, there is less hesitancy or doubt than would 
be supposed to be the case upon their own especial plane 
of development; for having mastered all beneath them, 
and having had practical experience on those lower 
planes, they know exactly when to do their work and how 
to do it, — just as a mathematician is certain that he can 
accomplish certain results in the use of figures, because 
he has all its laws and principles at his fingers' ends. But 
when he attempts to work in new and unfamiliar fields, 
then experiments have to be made; and they are the sub- 
jects of doubt and uncertainty, because of lack of famili- 
arity with the means to be employed to reach the desired 
end. Thus it is there is no royal road to absolute knowl- 
edge, save that royal road all have to tread, — the road of 
personal effort, and individual activity. So far as you 
have gone you are a master, and you are a master indeed 
if you are able to comprehend that which surrounds you 
in your then present condition. But when you go beyond 
it you have to make effort again, individual activity is 
again called for, and you have to work up to the higher 
grades beyond you, even as you have had to work from 
the lower grade you have emerged from and ascended 
out of. 

Q. How can a developed medium know whether it will be 
beneficial or i?ijurious to yield to spirit influence ? 

A. The most practical w r ay of deciding the question 
is to decide by the results of experience. You cannot 



APPENDIX. I45 



decide until results are presented, and in this, experience, 
great care, and though tfulness should be used. A tem- 
porary inconvenience, and distress or disturbance, should 
not be confounded with the possibility of perpetual 
disturbance and continued distress. When mediumship 
develops in the individual there is, so to speak, a sort of 
interruption of the psychical and mental currents of the life, 
and consequent disturbance in almost every department of 
the body and mind; and at first this may be extremely painful 
and exceedingly distressing. But suppose you are train- 
ing the muscles of the body in any particular direction, 
your muscles become very sore at first, your body will be 
full of pains; and if you are weak in will and not wisely 
encouraged to go forward, you may stop right there. But 
if you will persevere you will soon find that the pain 
will disappear, and that pleasure and benefit and a more 
complete use of the body will be the result, and you will 
say that you never felt better in your life, — that you never 
felt so strong and hearty as now. So when the medium 
feels a degree of distress and disturbance as the result of 
his mediumship, it is well to proceed a little further 
upon the road before you discontinue it. Then after 
going a little further, and finding no alleviation from dis- 
tress, but rather an aggravation, — finding that the character 
of the communications is such as rather tends to lead 
you on a little further and a little further without any 
appreciable result or satisfaction being obtained, — then you 
will be justified in calling a halt, and demanding of the 
controlling influences a strict account, — make them state 



146 APPENDIX. 



definitely what they are going to do. But you should be 
reasonable in the matter, and not set any limit to-day 
that shall harass or hamper them, and allow them plenty 
of time. When they say they are reasonably sure that 
such and such things will be accomplished within a cer- 
tain time, go on and follow the line they have marked 
out; and if wise and intelligent spirits they will have 
given such a margin that proof can be given within the 
stated time that they were accomplishing what they prom- 
ised. But after the time has elapsed and no progress is 
made, and no satisfactory reason given on the part of the 
controls, and the suffering and distress continue, then 
you would be perfectly justified in saying, " I have gone 
so far, I will go no farther ; the assurances you have held 
out to me have not been realized, and I decline to accom- 
pany you upon the devious pathway any longer." You 
have the right to expect the same honesty and the same 
straightforwardness and the same intelligent obedience to 
truth, fact, and law from the inhabitants of the spirit- 
world, that you have from one another living here; spirits 
have no more right to play the fool with you than you 
have with one another, — and if they come back to you 
from the spiritual world for the purpose of developing 
your mediumship, and so undertake a task they are unable 
to accomplish, the sooner they confess their inability the 
better. But if in the end success crown their efforts and 
yours, you will be like the athlete, improved and strength- 
ened in every respect. But at all points and stages of 
your development, it is your bounden duty to hold the 



APPENDIX. 



147 



spirits who come to you to a strict accountability for 
every moment of your time and every ounce of your 
strength that they occupy or consume. 

Q. When spirits enter into a cove?ia?it with morta/s, will 
they fulfill their obligations ? 

A. To the very best of their ability, certainly ! But 
you must bear in mind that spirits are neither infinite nor 
infallible ; they sometimes err through excess of kindness 
towards you, and at times their desires outrun their dis- 
cretion. But a spirit that is a thoughtful and intelligent 
spirit, and who is careful when he makes a promise, like 
any other rational, sensible being, makes it with the full 
understanding that he will keep it to the very best of his 
ability. While such a one cannot guarantee that he 
absolutely will do so and so, you have a reasonable assur- 
ance that it will be accomplished if at all possible. But 
when a spirit comes to you with a "Thus saith the Lord,'' 
why then you may congratulate yourself that you have got 
hold of one of the Wanderers on the Threshold, — a person 
who is probably playing a joke upon you. Place no con- 
fidence in such statements. A simple statement with the 
preface that, using their best endeavors, they hope to be 
successful in obtaining certain desired results, is worthy 
of far more attention and trust. It is also well for you to 
remember that however large the promises of the spirits 
may be, some duty still remains to you,— that you shall 
help them in the accomplishment of their undertakings. 
If you stubbornly resist them and refuse their counsel and 



148 APPENDIX. 



their guidance, even to consider it, you can scarcely 
wonder if, having created the opposition within yourselves, 
no satisfactory results should follow by and by when 
the occasion for success arrives. 

Q. Speaking of the employments and conditions of spirit- 
life, are those who are mediums here still mediu?ns 
there, in the sense in which they were mediums here ? 

A. Not in precisely the same sense, but relatively, 
yes. There are spheres of spiritual intelligence removed 
and beyond the first spheres in the spiritual life, even as 
the first conditions of that life are removed beyond this 
present one; and the intelligence of the exalted sphere 
floats down into the life of the sphere beneath it, — and this 
intelligence is expressed through sympathetic and superior 
minds in the spiritual world, in the same way as intelligence 
from the spirit-land is imparted to yourselves through the' 
sympathetic minds that have been attuned, so to speak, or 
whose natures have been opened to the spiritual world 
while living here. If mediums in spirit-life desire to take 
up the labor again and carry forward their duties in that 
regard, there is ample opportunity for them to do so. But 
we want you to bear in mind one very important fact here. 
All the inspired people are not contained within the ranks of 
Modern Spiritualism ; you can find them the world over; 
among the men of science, in the laboratory of the chemist, 
in the pulpit; among the authors, the poets, the mechanics, 
the inventors; among the painters and the dramatists, — 
in the active life of humanity itself. There is inspiration 



APPENDIX. 149 



throughout all the domain of human life; and man having 
a spiritual nature, and that spiritual nature being related 
to the spiritual world, there is nothing marvelous that the 
spiritual side of man's nature comes occasionally into har- 
monious relationship with the realms of spiritual life beyond; 
while it is perfectly natural that the inspirations from that 
world should flow down upon man's spirit and be felt and 
recognized while he lives here. Inspiration is more com- 
mon and widespread and universal than you suppose; and 
the inspired speaker of Modern Spiritualism is only the 
typical illustration of what will be accomplished by man's 
orderly development in harmony with natural principles, 
and through the natural operation of the spiritual attributes 
of man's nature permitting the receiving by him of inspira- 
tion from the spiritual world. 

Q. Are the spirits pained and grieved by the sufferings 
and weaknesses of their loved ones on earth ? 

A. They would scarcely be rational beings if they were 
not. Death does not destroy their humanity, does not 
sweep away their sympathy, does not take from them the 
love they bear to those they have left behind. At first 
they do not all rise up to that intellectual or spiritual plane 
that enables them to see beyond the mistakes, and that 
beyond all these things are smooth waters and fair seas; 
they see the wrong being done, the error being indulged in, 
the mistakes that are being continued, — and having no wider 
judgment than the area of the mistake, they suffer sorrow 
and pain when those they love do wrong and suffer from 



I50 APPENDIX. 



their weaknesses. But when they unfold to see beyond 
the present evil, and see the results of law and principles 
of operation, they learn that they are in some way benefits, — 
that the soul must pass through them to attain to higher 
and better things, — and accept it as a part and parcel 
of the purposes of the Eternal in relation to the progress of 
humanity. But they feel if these things can be avoided, 
if man can be taught to travel an easier road, — the road to 
happiness through righteousness rather than through wrong- 
fulness, through right and justice rather than shame and 
suffering and misdoing, — they desire to do all in their power 
to accomplish this result. But they know that no matter 
how deep are the wrongs that now pertain to their loved 
ones, and that though they will have to be atoned for in 
the future, they' are but temporary, and will surely yet 
give place to the law of eternal right and justice. They 
learn that in the end eternity is long enough for every 
tangled web of evil and wrong-doing to be straightened 
out, and for all of these dark places to be made plain. 

Q. I have a letter from an old Spiritualist, and ivould 
like to have the Control answer the objections contained 
in one paragraph which I will read: " Spirit- 
ualism is a truth, but its phenomena utterly fail 
to make its believers better, truer, and purer men and 
women; on the contrary, the tendency is in the other 
direction. I speak prom an experience 0/33 years in 
it. Not that Spiritualists are worse than others, but 
the system and practice of mediumship, the necessary 



APPENDIX. 151 



surrender of one's individuality to others, ' the Lord 
knows who,' is of itself degrading, belittling, and 
demo?'alizing. " What can you say to that ? 
A. We have but very little to say, though we could 
say very much. A belief in the phenomena of Spiritualism 
will never do any one any real moral or spiritual good; but 
belief in the phenomena of Spiritualism, as the result of in- 
telligent and morally-responsible agents, may do a great 
deal of good to the individual, as a means of determining 
the character of the life beyond; and it will, in time, become 
the potent element of a great moral revolution which will 
induce a spiritual upheaval of human nature that shall 
ultimately place mankind upon the highest plane of 
individual and personal righteousness. But we have not 
reached the spiritual development of this exalted position; 
therefore a consideration now must be had as to another 
point raised by the good friend. The effect of the sur- 
render of the individual will to the judgment of any spirit, 
" the Lord knows who," is in itself degrading and repulsive. 
We perfectly agree with our friend, and entirely endorse 
the statement, and say that here is one of the barriers 
of personal progress in Spiritualism among mediums 
and Spiritualists. Whenever you surrender your judg- 
ment and your will to any one, " the Lord knows who," 
that comes from the spiritual world, you are doing pre- 
cisely the thing you would not do to any human being that 
you happened to encounter in this world; and if any "the 
Lord knows who" were to happen to meet you on the 
street, and say "come with me and take a ride across 



152 APPENDIX. 



the Bay, or take a ride on this car," you would at once 
want to know who he was, and what he wanted you to do 
this for; and until he had satisfied you as to who he was 
and what his intentions were, you would be very likely to 
decline to join him. When there comes to you "the Lord 
knows who," and he says, CC I am a spirit; you must go to 
this town and preach, you must work here, you must go to 
that house and say that they must accept the angelic mes- 
senger," and you straightway go and do as you are bid, 
you will realize the painful experience that a surrender of 
the judgment and will to " tha Lord knows who" is veiy 
degrading and belittling. But suppose the spirit to be 
a person in w r hom you used to have implicit confidence 
while living here, suppose that person so clearly demon- 
strated the continuity of his own life that you have no 
doubt that it is the same individual, and that person says 
to you that he wants to advise you, counsel with you, and 
suggests that you do this or the other thing, — you, 
knowing his advice and counsel were good while he lived 
in this world, will be prepared and willing to give 
heed to him. But, as here in this world, you will not en- 
tirely surrender your reason and judgment to him; and if 
he is an honest ghost, he will ask you to weigh his counsel 
by your own reason and observation. This is very different 
from an entire surrender of your reason and your judgment to 
somebody, c< the Lord knows who." The surrender of the 
judgment and reason and personal will has been the fruitful 
cause of three-fourths of the misery that has been associated 
with the development of mediumship; it is a doctrine that 



APPENDIX. 



153 



can never result satisfactorily in the great majority of 
cases; here and there exceptional and peculiar circum- 
stances may temporarily warrant it; but, plainly and em- 
phatically, let us put it that when mediumship demands 
the surrender of reason and intelligence, and makes a man 
or woman less a man or woman for being a medium than 
they would have been without being a medium, then sur- 
render the mediumship, assert your manhood and woman- 
hood; for an honest man and an honest woman are a great 
deal more useful to this world than the most brilliant 
mediumship that sacrifices every element of moral and 
personal character in its development and operation. 

Q. Is there any rule for the development of clairvoy- 
ance ? 

A. A dozen different rules may be stated, and each one 
may utterly fail, while the thirteenth may accomplish all 
that is desired. The simplest rule we can give you is this: 
for one hour a day seclude yourself from all your fellows, and 
first try closing the eyes and meditating interiorly, thus shut- 
ting out all external thoughts as far as possible; and by 
and by, with a little practice, you will be able to dismiss 
them from you altogether. Then, when you have suc- 
ceeded in establishing that condition of internal com- 
munion and meditation with yourself, definitely direct 
your mind to some especial thing. To do this easily it is 
better to place a bandage across the eyes, — a soft, silken 
bandage will assist you quite as well, especially if it be 
black; place it directly over the eyes, and fasten it at the 



154 APPENDIX. 



base of the brain, and direct the mind to a clock or picture 
that may hang in the room. At first you may find it diffi- 
cult indeed, and you may perceive no indication of de- 
velopment; but after a few trials, probably five or six, the 
eyes may begin to recognize streaks of light shooting 
across the sight, and there may be pains affecting the 
brow and perhaps the eye itself, and the mind will seem 
to be centered in the eye for the purpose of seeing. Per- 
severe, — keep the mind continually fixed upon what you 
want accomplished. Do not make the thought too in- 
tense, but make it persistent; and in a few weeks' time you 
will be able to perceive, dimly at first, in miniature, the 
clock or article you are trying to see, and you will pres- 
ently be able to state the time it indicates. When you 
are able to perceive the clock and first catch a glimpse 
of it, and are perfectly sure of the fact, then remove 
the bandage, and see if what you supposed to be the time 
is correct. You will then be able to verify the experi- 
ment itself. It may happen that you have seen the watch 
inverted, and the very opposite of the time you state will 
be presented. Remember that little point. But not alone 
quietude of mind and internal meditation are necessary; 
there are other things required as well. The first is per- 
fect cleanliness of the body; the second is the most perfect 
cleanliness of mind; and the third, and most important 
of all, the most perfect cleanliness in diet. All these are 
necessary to successfully unfold the latent clairvoyance. 
You must refuse all stimulants and narcotics and all flesh 
diet, living upon plain and simple foods, giving strict at- 



APPENDIX. 155 



tention to bodily and mental conditions. It may be nec- 
essary for you to be magnetized, and some genial friend 
or acquaintance in whom you have confidence may be 
able to materially assist you. After you have discovered 
that you can develop these latent spiritual powers, then 
you have to determine in what way or direction the 
future development shall be exercised; this is an im- 
portant point that you need to consider carefully, and you 
should pursue that course in which the development seems 
to be the strongest and most natural. 

Q. Should children sit for development ? 

A. As a general thing we discountenance the devel- 
opment of children as mediums. Our observation is, 
that mediumship should never be developed until the 
physical system has nearly attained its growth. You can 
then draw upon the vitality of the system without much 
danger to the health of body or mind of the individual. 
Certainly we should say, not before seventeen or eighteen 
years of age; and if the attempt at development is put off 
even two years longer, the individual would certainly 
profit greatly by it, and lose nothing. It is most per- 
nicious physiologically and spiritually to try to hasten the 
development in any case in growing children; they will 
become bodily and mentally demoralized, to use a common 
expression; and we warn you in no case to undertake to 
develop your children in such a manner until they have 
reached the period referred to, when they will have a 
supply of reserve force, so to speak, to fall back upon. 



156 APPENDIX. 



From eighteen to forty years, in the meridian of life, is 
the best period for the development of mediumship; and 
the best period of all, in the majority of cases, is from 
twenty-five to thirty-five years of age. 

Q. What is the indication wJiere a person sees, after closing 

the eyes, what they have been observing before the eyes 

were closed? 

A. It is the perfect impression of the object upon the 

retina, just the last impression, and is reproduced as a 

sort of subjective panorama, a sort of camera obscura; by 

the closing of the eye, a photographic image is recorded 

on the optic nerve. 

Q. Sometimes we say this person has a gift for this or 
that, — is it a gift from the spiritual sources, or is it in 
the nature of the individual? 
A. It is in their own nature, in every case. The 
spiritual world can give you nothing. God has endowed 
you all with the same latent abilities, and the circum- 
stances of life determine the quality and development in 
every case. The spiritual world may assist you in bring- 
ing out that which is contained in yourselves. 

Q. Spirits that have never had earthly experience of any 
length of time, when they come back to identify them- 
selves to their relatives or friends, what is the effect upon 
that spirit in spirit life? Is it beneficial or otherwise, 
and is it requisite that that spirit should have some 
experience through a sensitive on the earth plane? 



APPENDIX. 157 



A. There are two very important questions involved 
in this most exceedingly interesting subject. For instance, 
the spirits who enter into the spiritual world prematurely, 
to use the language of earth, enter in from one of three 
causes: either as a consequence of the wilful operation of 
the mother, through foeticide, through some malpractice 
or injury of the human system, or through certain laws 
having terminated the possibility of their physical existence 
in this world. In the first case it is scarcely reasonable 
to suppose that the individual spirit is likely to derive 
large personal benefit from contact with its mother; but 
here another interesting point is involved which will have 
to be considered. Many a woman who has taken this 
unwise course feels, when this has been accomplished, 
waves of sorrow and regret sweep over her, and she would 
give all the years of her life if this thing could not have 
been. Now suppose a little spirit growing and developing 
comes back again into the mortal sphere, and the mother 
is made aware of that fact, why the floodgates of her soul 
would be opened, and such a psychological disturbance 
would come forth as would do that child an infinite amount 
of harm and mischief for the time being. Therefore it is 
that wise guardians in spirit life take charge of such waifs,, 
and keep them in their surroundings and develop them 
spiritually, and build them up in a manner that avoids the 
necessity of their being brought again in contact with the 
material sphere they originally sprang from. Such are 
sometimes brought into the sphere of human activity, 
brought to observe the condition of material life through 



158 APPENDIX. 



the influence and experience of others, and they gain a 
practical knowledge of the world they have been so 
unceremoniously ejected from. But it is not absolutely 
necessary that they should be brought back into this world, 
because the grand army of humanity passes from it and 
carries a sufficiency of experience forward with them into 
the spiritual world to be an abundant means of instruction; 
and these who carry with them much of the earth condi- 
tions are selected by wise teachers to take these waifs in 
charge. When a physiological law has been violated, as 
in premature birth and consequent death, then, of 
necessity, the moral and spiritual conditions are very 
different to the first case. In this instance, welling up 
with its love, the mother sphere unfolding in the spiritual 
nature, there is a point of contact with the spiritual 
thought that is in the spiritual world; and the two blending 
in harmony and unity, the mother love flows out with 
sweet affection to the babe and thrills its inmost soul to 
the centre, and it is drawn to the mother by it. Thus there 
are many interesting problems involved in this question, 
as well as many suggestions. One conclusion we will 
draw from it: there is one crime against yourself that will 
stand out before you in the spiritual world as a dreadful 
guilt, and that crime is the premature ejection into 
spiritual existence of that which should be the pride and 
glory of your manhood and womanhood. 

Q. At what stage of the growth and development of the 
child, prior to its birth in this world, is it immortal ? 



APPENDIX. 159 



A. The immortality of the child is coincident with 
conception itself; therefore, at any stage of the subsequent 
development, if it is interfered with, there is the fact of 
the attempted demolition ' of a human life. But the 
essential element of it, nevertheless, still continues, will 
still be manifest, and grow and unfold. 

CLOSING REMARKS BY THE CONTROL. 

We have to thank you most heartily, friends, for the 
spiritual and fraternal sympathy and support you have 
accorded us from night to night, during this course of 
Advanced Class-meetings; and in leaving you now with our 
present duties concluded, with great and joyous feelings in 
our hearts that we have met Upon the common plane of 
mutual desire to gain knowledge, we invoke the blessing 
of the highest and best upon each and everyone of you, 
and trust that the light that has been gleaming in your 
souls may become a strong and growing flame of divine 
radiance in the future. May your days be full of usefulness 
and beauty, and when the time comes for you to march 
forward to that greater and better realm beyond, may you be 
filled with the sublime and peaceful consciousness that 
you have endeavored to do your best at all times; and 
then it shall truly be said of you, even as you will permit us 
in all humbleness to say of ourselves, tl We have done our 
best, the wisest can do no more, nor should the poorest do 
less." May the truth and justice of eternal righteousness 
and knowledge be with you and keep you henceforth and 
forevermore. 



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